Forever war
by WordAnchor
Summary: AU, where the reapers never happened. The young, freshly nominated first human spectre Jane Shepard finds herself having to work together with the violent, mysterious Saren Arterius. Will they get along or hate each other? Can they protect the peace in the galaxy as good spectres supposed to? Updates: Weekly, every Sunday!
1. Prologue

Saren closed his apartment door after that asari girl left. What was her name again? He stopped to think… not like he actually cared. He gave up a second a later and looked at the clock.

8:15 in the morning.

He was between missions on mandatory leave, and he had a couple days left. Normally, he wouldn't have anywhere to be during this period, but he heard something that peaked his interest. The thought alone brought a smile on his face.

He went to have breakfast quickly and looked through the shop while at it, see if any new interesting mods popped up since his last mission. As he scrolled through the database, his mind wandered back to the same place: 8:30 was on the clock now. New spectre recruits always start at 9:00 with their mentor, and their first stop is the Spectre requisitions office.

He still had time, but he couldn't stop himself to go a little early.

Today was the day the first human spectre was introduced into the organization. He laughed at the thought. Nihlus was always weirdly diplomatic, but getting a human mentored… this was a stretch even for him. A human as a spectre… he's going to laugh his ass off when Nihlus - after suffering with mentoring for a couple weeks - finally admits that humans are not spectre material. Spectres are not trained. They're **born**.

He had to admit, he had nothing to do with this, he only heard when he was off in the Traverse. But he wanted to see. After Anderson's failure he was curious what kind of creature would be up next. He will accidentally run into them and get a good look of the victim quickly, then disappear. It had to be hilarious. So he made haste and soon left his apartment, sat in his shuttle and drove right to the C-Sec HQ, just below the hangars.

9:00 sharp he walked into the requisitions office. After all, Nihlus was always right on time. And so he expected to spot Nihlus immediately, but to his surprise, Nihlus wasn't the one that caught his attention first.

It was someone's hair.

Hair as red as blood, its owner right next to Nihlus.

His jaw dropped.


	2. Impression

Nihlus entered the requisitions office with Jane by his side. The office was full at this time of day since this wasn't just for spectres, but for C-Sec and the military as well. They were here to assign Shepard a proper spectre profile in person for requisitions. This was merely a necessity as the database already had her info, but they had to scan her retina and take her fingerprints here again, for an extra measure of security. After all, she'll be able to access top grade stock from now on, they had to make sure that no one will be able to get access by abusing her profile.

It all went smooth so far, Nihlus thought, only one person in line ahead of them, and she seemed good company as well. She was eager to see the stock, so they quickly started discussing weapon mods and favourite types while waiting. And she was pretty too, he had to admit.

Full, red hair, bright blue eyes and smooth skin.  
He chose an intelligent human, he knew, but quite possibly he also chose the most beautiful one. What he didn't notice while getting to know the newest recruit was that a certain Saren Arterius was closing in on them from behind, with a deadpan face.

"Nihlus" he greeted, making the two finally notice him as he arrived.

"Ah Saren, I didn't know you were back already" nodded Nihlus politely, as always. He was so smooth, he should have been a politician.

"I just got back" he confirmed, seeing from the corner of his eye the human turn around to see who arrived. Saren looked at Nihlus, and he knew the look his friend had on his face. He shook his head, already knowing where this was going, but proceeded to fulfill Saren's unspoken request:

"Shepard, meet Saren Arterius, fellow spectre." he said as the girl turned around, and Saren finally got to see the face. His expression tensed. "And Saren, this is the first human spectre in history, Jane Shepard."

Their eyes met.  
They both were surprised a bit.

He saw the human's fiery red hair from miles away, which already intrigued him, being a very unusual colour. But the eyes hit him a bit even more, as he looked into those perfect almond shaped, icy blue eyes, the look in them piercing him through to the bone. Most of the time when he met humans, they all took a step back with usually wary looks as soon as they saw him, being he wasn't the prettiest of turians. But the look on the face of this woman was confident, intrigued. It was almost like she was analyzing him… not afraid for a second. She was small, but her posture straightened as she saw him.

Most of the humans he met were haphazard, power-hungry and everything between all extremes. Too all over the place. He wasn't sure what was it, but there was something in her… Very different to the picture that was in his mind regarding humans. Something familiar that he never noticed in the others. A fire lingered in her eyes that told him she could destroy this whole room in a second if she wanted to. He usually hated all of them, but it almost seemed like it wasn't worth hating this one.

On the other hand, Jane never hated turians, on the contrary. She looked up to them as individuals and their military. Almost all of them were bright, but a little bit stuck in their ways. But to her they all looked the same… up until this moment.

This turian was everything but average. He was giant, muscular, his plates had a very rare, greyish colour, no face painting, and his eyes were bright blue. His face was perfectly symmetric, and she found herself looking at his straight, sharp mandibles that slightly pulled apart as he looked at her. A coldness emanated from him that warned her: he was a top tier spectre.

He was a very interesting sight.

"I see your new fetish is small human girls... " Saren said, looking at Nihlus with an evil smile, but secretly only paying attention to Jane. He wanted to get a reaction. He needed to go further. "I am disappointed Nihlus… Humanity is not ready for this and you know that. I suggest you stop this before you kill this little girl..."

Nihlus rolled his eyes, visibly frustrated. Was it impossible for Saren to not be a dickhead towards humans?

"Careful, Saren." he immediately replied "She's an excellent candidate, and humanity has more potential than you think."

"Well" Jane started, looking straight into Saren's eyes "If your only problem is that I'm not a turian and I don't have a dick, it shows what you value in a spectre..."

Nihlus couldn't believe his ears. Did she really say that?

Saren's mandibles clicked. Nihlus couldn't tell if he was going to laugh, or kill her right in this spot. This was the kind of comment no one dared to address to Saren, he killed for much less before.

"Extremely funny..." Saren said, almost immediately, his voice thick with sarcasm. But he did not snap. He exhaled, not removing his eyes from Jane, maybe even a small smile appearing on his face.

Something was happening. It seemed Saren liked her remark, and she liked his reaction in turn, as their eyes were still fixed on each other. Nihlus wasn't sure if they were declaring each other as enemies or weirdly flirting. But only a second later, Saren nodded to Jane and briefly looked back at him:

"Good luck" he said and just turned around and left. Jane's head turned as she was looking at his back while he was walking away. Her eyes followed him out until he disappeared at the entrance.

What a dickhead, she thought. But he was testing her, she knew. He clearly had bad experiences with humans before, and it was obvious that he didn't like them one bit. But still, the look in his eyes after her comment was very strange, it seemed like no one ever talked back to him like this before. She thought he was going to go reeling, but all she saw was excitement in his eyes. She had no idea who he was, but she wanted to know him better.

"You're writing your own death sentence with comments like this" Nihlus warned her "Saren is a very - if not the most - dangerous spectre."

"Dangerous?" she asked, smiling with amusement.

"That was not a compliment.."

* * *

As soon as Saren exited the office, he dived deep into the crowd on the Wards. He honestly thought Nihlus' new catch will be another tough guy with loads of military experience, but other than that nothing interesting, just like how Anderson was. Someone who can be swayed easily. But no. This was a _woman_ above all, and she was so young, she must have been at most in her mid twenties. And that red hair… could he possibly choose a candidate flashier than her? Was that hair colour even natural for humans? He had no idea, as he had seen red haired humans before, but not this bright. And humans were also known for painting their hair different colours, so it was always possible that whatever they had on their heads was artificial in reality.

But more so, the aura of this woman was very strange… wild, explosive… almost interesting even. Not long ago he thought this was going to be a hilarious experience, but he was intrigued more than anything.

He stopped at an elevator, suddenly catching himself. Was he now really thinking he was intrigued by a human? He was probably ill.

* * *

~ 2 months later

Nihlus was taking each step up the stairs like he was going to his own funeral. But it had to be done, things just simply couldn't stay like this. He was thinking about this for quite some time now, and now was the perfect moment. It hurt him bad, but in his best conscience, he just couldn't do this to her. She was not to be wasted away.

As he reached the podium in the Citadel Tower, he looked up and saw the Council quietly talking to each other while they waited for him. They didn't need to wait for long, he was punctual as always.

"Welcome back, Nihlus." Tevos greeted him with a friendly headnod, the other Councilors following her example. Nihlus also politely nodded, and the meeting started.

"We've read your report, and I can say I'm quite surprised." Sparatus started, looking at the holo projection that showed the report that Nihlus sent to the Council just a day ago, with Jane in its focus. He's been working with her for 3 months now, and after she was inducted, they've been to all sorts of missions, just to map her place within the organization. Most of the spectres worked alone, some worked in smaller groups occasionally, some were paired or grouped permanently. They needed to find out where Jane belonged in the big picture, so they could utilize her best.

This was the topic of his report. It wasn't due for another month, but he decided to submit it now. He gathered enough information. So to say.

"We presumed you would keep Shepard by your side..." Valern proposed: "...but your report says otherwise. Elaborate on this reasoning."

"I cannot guide her." he said, fully aware of every one of his words like a true diplomat "I am unable to do so anymore."

"Is it because she is not as skilled as expected?" Sparatus immediately asked, but Nihlus shook his head:

"No. On the contrary; her induction to the organization is still fully justified, and well deserved. However, she is different from the lot of us." He looked at the floor. How was he going to say this… "She is over performing in every aspect. But even though she is very easy to work with, she's taking high risks, and she is very hard to control. She is "extreme" when it comes to safety and has little regard to her own life. I do not think she needs anymore guidance. I also do not think that low maintenance missions will satisfy her."

"Are you suggesting she is capable of higher caliber missions alone?" Tevos asked, sharing a quick look with Sparatus.

"She is capable, but not exactly my suggestion."

"Nihlus" Valern warned him "Don't beat around the bush. Say what you mean."

"I think I found the perfect partner for your favourite agent."

The three Councilors looked at each other, dumbfounded. They were looking for a spectre to pair with Saren for years now. It wasn't like he needed any help, but rather that he was their best agent for a long time now, and they wanted to maximize his potential. It was good having Saren, but having two of him would be even better.

The only problem was that none of the candidates even remotely fitted how he operated, much less his nature. He was a true lone wolf and he tended to destroy everything in his wake. He bore no partners at his side.

"You want to pair Jane Shepard with Saren Arterius?" asked Sparatus, the air almost knocked out of him. "Why do you think that poor girl could withstand Saren?"

"She's not a "poor girl", and it's clear" Nihlus replied, elaborating immediately as he saw the looks on their faces "Shepard obliterated Eden Prime and all other missions I took her to. She has excellent coordination and leadership skills, strong biotics and combat tactics. She is possibly the best I have seen since Saren himself. Her personality is a lot like his, but in a more explosive fashion. You will waste a lot of both of their potentials if you keep them separate."

Tevos was already looking like she was convinced, but the other two Councilors not yet.

"What makes you think he'll accept something like this?"

Nihlus smiled with that usual sauve smile of his: "I will make sure he accepts it."

And Nihlus knew Saren well.

Really well.

They've known each other since they were only pups, growing up in the military, so he decided to talk to him right away, and as soon as he left the Council chambers, he arranged a meetup with him.

* * *

"Nihlus" came a rumbling voice from behind Nihlus' back and he turned slightly with his drink in his hand. It was Saren of course, in a dark grey robe and with an annoyed face. "Are you into whores in the middle of the day now?" he asked as he sat down next to his friend and looked around the club called Chora's Den.

Nihlus was very diplomatic and official, always buried in work and never had enough time for personal life. But he always had episodes with all kinds of women: human, asari, quarian, it didn't matter to him. He had the kind of face that attracted all sorts of women and he made use out of it quite often. But Saren wasn't sure what the hell they were doing here in this club with strippers, in the early afternoon. He had no interest in Nihlus' hunts.

"Am not, I just simply like this place" Nihlus smiled, and waved to the bar holding up two of his fingers. The bartender nodded, letting him know that the drinks are coming soon. He turned back to Saren "I want to talk about work."

Saren leaned back in his chair, letting him know he's listening.

"Remember my new candidate?"

"Like I could forget." he nodded. Of course, he remembered. It wasn't everyday that a human told him he was basically a dick.

"I'm not guiding her anymore." Nihlus said, earning a suspicious look from his friend. He continued: "She doesn't need anymore guidance."

Saren looked away.

Was this that important? He didn't care, and he had no idea why Nihlus was telling him this. His eyes wandered away to the dancers on the platforms around the club. Mostly humans, some asari. They moved around the pole like liquid, showing off their curves to everyone who wanted to see. But Saren wasn't particularly interested… he was looking at their hair. None had that colour, that bright red that he didn't see on anyone since he saw that woman, Jane, even though he was looking. Simply not a single woman had that same colour, or if they had something similar, they all had green eyes. Not like that icy, bright blue that she had. He was starting to think it was an artificial colour.

"Saren?" he heard coming from Nihlus, and he looked back at him. Their drinks were on the table now, and he was looking at him like he was a stranger. "Did you hear anything that I said?"

"Of course." Saren lied.

"What did I say?"

"I have no idea."

Nihlus laughed. He reached for his drink and they toasted. "I was saying that Shepard has some exceptional skills. You would find her very useful. That is if you want to take her with you. There is an opportunity here."

"Take her with me?" he asked back, now all of his attention was with Nihlus.

"Yes." he nodded "I released her off guiding since she was outperforming way too fast."

"If she's that good, why don't _you_ take her as partner?"

A smile appeared on Nihlus' face. "She's not really compatible with me. Her tactics are much more straightforward than I'd like. Her battlestyle is a lot more like yours. She has no taste for low priority cases…. To be fair she was quite bored I believe."

"Probably because you are a sneaky bastard, and those missions are boredom solidified… Picking up a dusty prothean beacon on Eden Prime? Come on."

"They require a level of sophistication you do not have, Saren." he replied, purposefully riling him up a bit inside. "But that's not the point. The point is that she should be your partner. The Council already knows about this. You should accept it."

Saren's face was suddenly distorted with frustration. He didn't like it one bit that Nihlus was telling him what to do. No one could do that, apart from the Council, and even that was only because it was his job. "And _why_ would I ever have a partner? Let alone a human?" he hissed.

"What do you think?" Nihlus started, getting serious "The remnants of the First Contact War still cause issues all around Council Space. Human-turian relations are dire, but by improving on them we could have a military cooperation that is possibly the strongest in the galaxy. The krogans are coming back up Saren, and when their evolution works around the genophage, we will need an army that is disciplined but explosive enough to protect the peace. Turians and humans are the best for that, and two spectres from the two species publically working together can have a massive positive impact!"

"I don't give a fuck about human-turian relations, or the krogan." was Saren's short answer. Nihlus leaned back in his chair as he finished his drink, looking at him. Of course he didn't care. There was hardly anything he cared about, but fortunately for Nihlus, he had a bit more up his sleeve.

"All right, let me put it this way" he leaned in, crossing his arms casually "That chick is crazy. She says whatever she wants, and does whatever she wants. She charms everyone around her and those who she cannot charm, she will beat until they comply. Sound familiar?" That made Saren smile slightly. "We went on a couple recon and stealth missions and she nailed every single one of them, on her own. Some geth even recently ventured beyond the Veil and she hunted them down like rabbits. She's nuts for action and fighting, and there was no way I could shut her down. You could obliterate half of the galaxy's criminal underworld together if you wanted to. Her record..."

"I've seen her record."

"Well, then you know" Nihlus continued "No parents, no records until 16 when she joined the military. She practically destroyed a whole batarian unit on Elysium with ease. Perfect records, awards, Spectre at 25. That is the second youngest spectre ever, and you know who was the youngest one.."

Of course he knew. It was him. He became a spectre when he was only 20.

"If you don't take her with you she's going to make a name for herself on her own. But the Council wants _your_ influence on her. That should say something about you too."

A long second of silence enveloped the two, only the noise of the nightclub around them.

The Council must be desperate, or stupid if they really want his influence on her, Saren thought. And that goes for Nihlus as well. They were so naive, all of them, they thought he was ruthless, sure, but a hero to commend nonetheless. When in reality, he was so much more worse than that.

And there was this human girl who said he was a dick. She already had more balls than the rest of the spectres combined.

"I work alone." was all Saren said eventually, before turning back to look at the dancers.

He was zoning out. The dancers were all disappointing. Saren's mind wanted to go to sleep just from looking at them. And from this whole station too. _She hunted them down like rabbits_ … Nihlus' words echoed in his mind, and he smiled. No wonder she was bored with Nihlus. She would have been bored in any part of the galaxy with this kind of drive... it was written all over her face when he saw her a couple months ago. He still remembered those almond eyes, that look that pierced through him. She saw into him.

"I will take her with me." he suddenly said, still looking at the dancers.

Nihlus' mandibles clicked so loud, the sound could be heard.

"That's it? You're in?" he asked, his voice not masking his surprise.

Saren turned his gaze back to him. "Yes."

"But she's a human. You hate humans."

"You wanted to convince me to take her. Now you're talking against it?" he asked, then stood up to leave.

Throughout the years Saren had numerous opportunities to get a partner, but he always refused. Nihlus knew Jane was exactly Saren's caliber, and that he can convince him, but he didn't think that Saren would agree to partnering with her this fast.

It seemed that his hunch that told him that they would get along was right.

"Very well" he eventually said "I'll arrange a meeting."

"Don't bother" Saren stopped him before stepping away from the table "I'll contact her."

And he left, leaving Nihlus alone in the club.

He stayed seated and just smiled by himself, thinking about what these two are going to commit together if Jane agrees to partner with him.


	3. Collaboration

_[I have a business proposition for you. Meet me at the Flux on the Upper Wards at 7.  
_ _Saren Arterius]_

Jane closed her omni tool after re-reading the message Saren sent her. She looked up and nodded to the security guy at the entrance and stepped into the Flux. It was almost 7, but as she entered she didn't see the turian anywhere in the club so she decided she still had some time for a drink.

She stepped to the bar and ordered a whiskey while looking at the only few people dancing on the floor. She then sat down next to the giant windows looking over the wards, and shook her head smiling as she looked at the dancing humans weirdly moving around, clearly drunk enough to really let themselves go. She wished she was in the mood to dance too, but it wasn't the case.

She was eager to become a spectre but the last couple months have been a disappointment for her. Nihlus was a workaholic, always paying attention to every detail, taking every assignment with attention and carefulness that amazed her. He was very strict with her and had high expectations, and provided her with great insight into being a spectre, but at the same time she was bored out of her mind. Most of his assignments were low key but important jobs, most of the time guarding something important, or overseeing operations vital in some sort of way to the Council.

But what she really wanted was to work on the field. Chase geth, blow up radical batarians, catch war criminals and major arms dealers. She wanted to see the dark side of the galaxy burn. Nihlus was a great mentor but that wasn't what she needed. She was craving some real action by now. That was the main reason she decided to listen to whatever Saren had to say. She had no idea what he wanted, but judging from the look in his eyes last time, he wasn't the calm, Nihlus type.

He seemed like someone who wouldn't stop until they single handedly eradicated a crime syndicate from the face of the galaxy. She was hoping that whatever he had in mind would give her an opportunity to show her worth.

But she didn't hold high hopes, considering the fact that he seemed an absolute xenophobe. And he made that very clear when they met last time.

But her thoughts ended as soon as a glass of bright blue drink was put on her table. He saw three ungloved, sharp talons next to the glass, that belonged to a turian undoubtedly. She looked up to see the face, and saw the exact same blue eyes she saw two months ago. The same unpainted face of Saren Arterius who just sit down across from her, casually taking his place, but looking somehow regal at the same time. He had a tight, black robe on and a matching scarf wrapped around his neck. His face was completely void of any emotion.

"Jane Shepard." he said, as means of greeting.

"Saren Arterius." she replied officially, while nodding.

Saren looked at her, and even though she was wearing just jeans and a black top, she looked very serious. Her bright red hair was all over and around her shoulders and collarbone, untamed, as is, but still not looking messy. Whatever she was thinking in her mind, he had no idea about, he couldn't read her face apart from the fire in her eyes that might have been a constant for her.

"You must wonder why I invited you." he started, taking a sip from his drink. She was watching his every move, he could tell. She was suspicious? "Our introduction had a bit of a rocky start."

"I am curious what you might want from a tiny human girl like me, after that.." she replied, teasing him. His mandibles slightly moved watching her expression. Contrary to what she said, she was everything but a tiny girl. She was small, yes, but she carried herself like a military leader who's been a spectre since birth. He only said that last time to see what her reaction might be.

"Nihlus told me about you, and your problems."

Problems?

Her eyes visibly fired up as she heard that word: "My problems?" she asked back immediately.

A sly, bright smile appeared on his face. She could tell already that he enjoyed teasing her.

"Spectres are protectors of the peace in the galaxy. That includes a lot of things." he started, now serious "Sometimes our job is… not the most exciting as opposed to what the civilians and the rest of the military thinks. Nihlus is the beacon of that. But it is not all there is to it."

"Really?" she asked, intrigued, taking a sip from her drink. They looked deep into each other's eyes as the noises of the club started to disappear.

"Absolutely. I have heard you are looking for assignments that are more… hands on." his head tilted a bit at the last words, like he knew that what he was going to say will hit the nail on the head with her "I share that kind of thinking."

Now they were talking.

A large smile appeared on Jane's face, that showed Saren they might understand each other a bit more than he originally thought.

"Spectres choose if they want to work alone or in groups, temporarily or permanently, and that goes for you as well." he leaned in and looked her deep in the eye, like a predator hunting its prey. "Partner with me."

They shared a silent moment. It was as if they were the only people in the club. It seemed for a second like they almost didn't have to figure each other out anymore. Everything was crystal clear, and Jane saw an opportunity that was exactly what she needed. But this turian wasn't getting everything right away. She leaned back with a smile on her face and finished her drink.

"Why would you want to partner with me? On top of that,what makes you think I want to partner with you?" she asked softly. A little sarcastic laugh escaped him while he too leaned back.

"You do not belong with Nihlus and you know it want the same thing."

"Is that so?"

"Yes." he nodded, confident.

"Well Saren, then let me tell you what I want." she smiled for a second, but soon her expression turned serious, stern. If Saren was serious about this, this was the time to confirm that.

"I've had enough of law enforcement tolerating the criminal underworld, and species focusing on pointless military advancement while destroying the peace they vowed for. I'm sick of politicians and their retarded laws. They never want anyone to know how weak their system is and how close the bad guys can get, but they act like their asses are made of gold... I'm sick of pretending to be someone who tolerates this fucking shit and letting things slide for power or because bureaucracy. Half of the galaxy is disgusting, but acts like a saint. And the other half acts like they are so strong and ready to face challenges and injustice, but somehow they are always afraid to take real action."

She spoke so strongly, her words sucked him in completely.

"I want to see the rotten part of the galaxy burn, and I _will_ burn it. With or without you."

Her eyes threw sparks he never saw before, talking to something so deep and primal within him, his hand clenched into a fist. Hearing his almost exact own thoughts out loud felt like a bolt of electricity shooting through him. He hated humans, but her… it almost felt like she wasn't even one of them. What she said was the reason he became a spectre. He couldn't stop himself from feeling explosive joy deep inside.

Finally, someone.

"But without me, it will take longer." was his response, looking deep into her eyes, letting the fire in them reach him too.

Something was happening.

They were sitting here, strangers with drinks, almost glued to their chairs, getting lost in the future that they both thought was only theirs. And somehow they both instinctively raised their glasses to toast.

But a ringtone interrupted them. Saren closed his eyes with a face of an angry beast and he reached for his omni tool.

"It'll only be a moment." he said to Jane as he picked up the call "I highly recommend this is something extremely urgent, because if not, I'm going to kill you..." he answered the phone, and Jane excused herself quickly. Her glass was almost empty and she wanted to get another one anyways, so she decided to let him take the call. She stood up and left the turian at the table and went to the bar.

"Whiskey, neat, please." she said to the bartender girl who started preparing her drink. She watched her looking for the bottle in the fridge behind the bar as she was thinking about what she just heard.

The look in his eyes was menacing, like that of a demon coming out of millions of years of hiding. She smiled to herself.

"Hey baby!" she heard right next to her ears, and noticed that a guy was standing on her right, dangerously close. It was a human, visibly drunk with a couple friends behind him, who were busy picking out what they wanted to drink. She quickly realized they were the group she saw dancing on the floor just a couple minutes ago. She took a discreet step to the left to distance herself from the man:

"Get lost!" she said with a look of disdain.

"Wow, rude!" the drunktard said "I just wanted to say hello since you're so beautiful, my baby!"

She rolled her eyes as she received her drink and prepared to pay. This club used to be a nice place...

"I said get lost, I don't want to talk to you."

But what came next sent a jolt of anger through her body she could not control.

Saren in the meanwhile was absolutely outraged, listening to his contact over the comms. He thought his lab on Noveria was finally in intelligent hands, but it seemed that wasn't the case, and now it was an emergency.

"I will be there as soon as I can" he said to his contact "Try not to blow up the lab until I get there! Idiots..." and with that he aggressively ended the call and chugged his drink. He looked up to see if Jane had finished at the bar, because now he had to go, and could not waste a second.

But the sight that opened up to him was not what he expected.

A human was standing next to Jane, leaning from one leg to the other without control, clearly wasted. He heard her sending him away, but not even a second later he saw the man aggressively grope her bottom. It didn't last long: she moved so fast, the poor fucker didn't even know what hit him. She sent her elbows directly into his face and the guy fell back a couple steps.

He chuckled under his nose, seeing how the guy's nose was bleeding to the floor in a moment.

"Oh lord!" the bartender girl squealed.

"What the fuck?" the other guys turned to see their friend almost fall to the ground by the force of her hit "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What do you think, dumbass?" she replied aggressively, and the fire in her eyes came alive.

"Who do you think you are, you bitch?"

Saren stood up instinctively.

The rest of the men came at her like wild dogs, and his eyes widened as he saw how they attacked one of their own kind, a woman on top of that. But she was up for the task and evaded them like it was nothing for her. The men quickly surrounded her and even after she took out three of them with deadly precision, three remained. She smiled as she leaned in for another punch, sending the one in the middle to the ground, and a close second after that she raised her left hand to slap the other one to the floor as well. He smiled as he watched her practically eliminate these guys without breaking a sweat, and even enjoying it.

She seemed to be one of a kind indeed.

But as she took down the second one, the third one moved his hands next to his leg, and Saren saw something gleam in it. It was a knife, he knew instantly. Jane was facing the other way around and only the bartender girl noticed the knife as the thug raised it up to stab her right in the back. Jane turned, noticing the knife and preparing herself in her mind to disarm him.

But it wasn't needed as she saw sharp talons wrap around the man's neck from behind, lifting him up from the ground. He lost his breath and his feet started dangling in the air as Saren picked him up like a dirty sack of potatoes. The security guy at the door just arrived to see what was happening, freezing in his moves.

"Filthy scum" Saren growled, tightening his grip around the thug's neck. He dropped the knife and he let him go, so the guy fell to the ground like the others did. "I should shoot all of you dead..."

"Now get the hell out of here!" Jane commanded, grabbing one of the guys and throwing him towards the exit. They started to pick themselves up from the floor and limp to the exit of the club. The security guy just stood there, watching them one by one as they grunted in pain.

"Thanks!" Jane said as she turned to face Saren, a victorious grin on her face.

She was just assaulted by some scum and she looked more alive than ever before. Saren wasn't sure why that was, but it seems she indeed was crazy. She was going to need that if she comes with him.

"Excuse me, this is a reputable place.." came from behind their backs, the security guy approaching them slowly like a shy, old turtle. "You can't fight here. Please leave."

"I am not so sure about that… " Jane commented.

"She just got groped and assaulted in this shitty excuse of a pub, and now you want to kick us out too?" Saren asked with not a small amount of disgust in his eyes "Attacking spectres is open defiance of lawful authority, so I suggest you at least give her free drinks or stay silent and you might not suffer the same fate those thugs did."

The guy was dumbfounded.

"Come, I"ll prepare some drinks for you." said the bartender completely ignoring the security guy, who slowly backed away without saying a word. They sat down at the bar and waited for their free drinks.

"Do you use being a spectre as excuse for everything?" Jane casually asked.

Saren's expression was becoming darker by the minute.

"Don't ask stupid questions. It is not an excuse, it's reality." his reply made her smile. He was so cold now, not like before, he could rival with an iceberg and win. In a minute their drinks arrived. "So" Saren started "What do you say?"

He held his drink out for her to toast.

She softly reached out while looking into his eyes and slowly clinked her glass to his.

"I'm in" was all she said. She smiled, her almond eyes lighting up. He never thought he would ever have a human as a partner, let alone ask one himself. He hated humans from the bottom of his heart, but this one seemed like they might actually end up having fun together.

They downed their drinks and he slammed his glass on the bartop, standing up.

"Then let's go."

Jane looked at him, a bit taken aback. "What? Right now?"

"I just got a call from one of my labs. There is an emergency and I am needed on Noveria immediately. I cannot stay on the Citadel." he stepped away from the bar "So if you want to be my partner, then I suggest you hurry. You have an hour to pack whatever you have. Meet me at the hangars, if you're not there on time, I will leave without you."

He had some nerves to order her around, that's for sure.

"Don't worry, I'll be there."

* * *

Jane stepped out of the elevator and walked the steps to reach C-Sec HQ with a bag in her hand. She passed by the offices to reach the turbolift that led to the restricted hangars only reachable from C-Sec. These were the docks that were only occupied by C-Sec and military ships.

Her hands were almost shaking. All of her life all she worked for was to break out from the dirt, the pain and the box society put her in. She felt like she was leaping into the sky now, finally strong enough and having enough power to be free. And if she had to work together with a turian spectre like Saren, then so be it.

And as she reached the elevator, there he was. Standing on the stairs leading to the controls, he was giant. Taller and stronger than any of the many turians in the hall, with eyes that shone through the whole room. His posture was that of a king, his black robe fitting him like a glove. It was apparent that he was a spectre through to the bone, and everyone who just passed by only dared to look at him from the corner of the eye.

She stopped in her tracks, just looking into his eyes from afar. And as the people passed between them, he also looked at her, deep in thought.

She was such a short, delicate woman on the first look, in her jeans, but he only had to look in her eyes to see what lingered inside. A demon of life, hungry for action. He could tell her whole being attracted attention naturally, as the turians around all turned to look at her, to just catch a glimpse of her. She had an aura about her that made it unmistakable that she wasn't fitting into society. He couldn't deny the feeling that a spectre was being born right in front of his eyes.

She slowly started again and stepped up the stairs, looking right into his eyes the whole time. She was indeed ready to go with him, and do whatever was necessary. He somehow saw a piece of himself inside her, and because of it he felt like he had known her for years. And as she reached the last step on the stairs, her mouth curved into a very small, mysterious smile. She wasn't afraid of him for a second.

What a creature.

Meanwhile on the other side of the hall Nihlus was stepping out of the administration offices. He was done with paperwork and running around for today and decided to retire to his ship. But when he came around the corner, he witnessed something he never thought he would see. Ever.

Saren was standing at the hangar turbolift, and Jane going right to him up the stairs. As she reached her last step, the turian's left hand extended and Nihlus' jaw dropped. Saren reached his hand out, right to the human, and Jane comfortably took it to take her last step.

Saren was ruthless, but he was always a master of seduction and protocol when it came to getting what he wanted - especially with women, like Councilor Tevos and various asari matriarchs -, but he never thought he would see the day of Saren showing decency towards any human. Even if just for show. From this point, Nihlus knew that he indeed chose the best candidate to fill the spot of the first human spectre. As Jane took the last step, her hand in the most dangerous spectre's hand, she looked like a queen.

And she felt like one.

Saren's talons were cold, but not nearly as cold as she imagined. It was a very strange sensation. She arrived next to him without a word said, and he nodded. They summoned the elevator and stepped in. As they turned to wait for the door to close, Saren saw Nihlus at the far end of the hall, his face consumed in a giant smile. Saren rolled his eyes as the doors blocked the hall out, and the elevator started to rise. No words were spoken, but as the turbolift opened at dock 423 and they stepped out, a curse left Jane's mouth that Saren's translator couldn't pick up.

This was one of the private docks, and there was only one ship in it at the moment, which could only be Saren's: and Jane almost ran to it.

The ship docked was an incredibly beautiful frigate. It was a lot smaller than Nihlus' ship - which carried a fairly large crew - but it was still commendable in size. But what made it truly elegant was the plating. It's surface was one giant mirror, it seemed almost fluid, reflecting everything around, including them. She could see herself standing on the dock, and Saren stepping behind her back.

"This shell plating..." she exhaled, mesmerized.

"It's an extremely durable type of mirror, specifically developed for space travel. Custom made. Obviously." he said, looking at the ship and Jane's reflection in it.

"But this is…" she hummed, speechless.

"It's very useful..." he started, but was immediately interrupted by Jane:

"It reflects everything. In space, this makes you practically invisible without the need to use expensive stealth technology. It's the simplest optical camouflage. I imagine this should work wonders out there."

"It does indeed."

"Who designed this beauty?" she asked. It must have been a magician.

"It is a fully custom ship, made by the best turian engineers." he said, not shy. He was proud of this ship, and it wasn't every day he could show it off. He wasn't all excited for material things, but being a spectre had its advantages. "The casing was my idea." he added "So you better take care for this ship while you're on it. I won't have it damaged by anything."

She couldn't help but smile.

"And what's the name?"

His voice was thick with pride. It coudn't have a more fitting name.

"Sovereign."


	4. Tactician

Jane used to travel on the Normandy a lot when she was still an Alliance Commander, with Captain Anderson. Compared to that ship, the Sovereign was a lot smaller, but it still had four decks. They entered on the first one which was the cockpit.

"As you can see this is the cockpit" Saren said, walking into the large cabin, and put his hand on the chair.

"Where's your pilot?" Jane immediately asked, seeing as there wasn't a single soul here apart from them.

"There is no pilot" he casually said like it was normal. His blue eyes turned to the observation window, now facing the docks. "In fact, there is no live crew on board. Never was."

Jane almost froze where she stood.

She practically grew up in the military in space, but never saw a single ship without a permanent crew, even if the ship was as small as a bean. She knew it wasn't a standard in other militaries either, especially for turians. They lived in communes glued together by the Hierarchy that fed their military nature, there was no way they'd work without a system. But apparently Saren was doing exactly that… or was he?

"What on Earth…?" she exhaled "How can you _not_ have a crew? Who pilots the ship? Who does maintenance? Monitoring, navigation? Not to mention cleaning? Cooking?"

She looked completely dumbfounded and it deeply amused Saren. He could almost see her thoughts race in her head. Humans were so manual… but then again, his own species loved crews as well. He wasn't a very good turian… he hated rules, and crews came with lots of rules.

"I think it's time you meet Ilsa" he said with a twitch of a mandible.

 _[Welcome aboard, spectre Jane Shepard. I should imagine you have a lot of questions already.]_

Jane looked around. The female voice was coming from somewhere, but she couldn't pinpoint where.

"Is that a VI?" she asked at once.

"AI." the turian corrected her, straightening his back. "She handles everything you just mentioned… apart from cleaning and cooking, obviously." He looked at Jane and already knew what she was going to say "Yes, most AI-s are illegal. Apart from the ones developed on the order of the Council."

"Fuck!" she cursed, visibly angry now "That's what I told you about! They force shitty AI laws on everyone apart from themselves? The Council can kiss my ass!"

He just watched her for a second.

He somehow still thought he was going to be annoyed out of existence by this woman if they were to partner, but she had a great point and she was not afraid to say it, at all. But there was no vanity in it, just pure anger. She was so explosive, but in such an innocent way almost. And he knew people really well, he would see through any facade. But this was genuine. He scowled.

"AI research is illegal, however, some companies sometimes receive special permits to research AI technology for the benefit of the galaxy. That is the Council's standpoint" he explained "Ilsa is the product of such research. However, you're still correct. Ilsa, prepare to leave dock and leave for the relay. Destination is Horse Head, Pax, Noveria. I'll show Jane the rest of the ship in the meantime."

 _[At once.]_ the AI replied.

"She runs decontamination and all communication with Citadel Control. She will now also seal the ship and get it ready for take off. She'll check temperature, pressure, navigational parameters, system health and security."

"Wow" was all she said as Saren turned around and left for the elevator. Her thoughts were going through her head like a freight train regarding the AI and having no crew, but she fell behind Saren and followed him. Guess there was more to see.

They went right to the hangars.

And what she saw there was also something she did not expect.

A large hangar opened up in front of them as they stepped out of the lift, and Jane immediately saw not one, but two shuttles parked at the far end. One was clearly a luxury shuttle, black as dark space, metallic finish. It looked like a sports car, obviously expensive. It looked almost like a shuttle version of Saren: sleek, powerful, commanding. But the other one was a lot harder to categorize. It had nothing special on it: it was an earthy, mudlike colour with no shine. It's design completely average, no military or brand markings, not too clean, not too dirty. In all of its aspects it was absolutely unremarkable.

"Why the two shuttles?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"One is for official appearances" he explained, obviously talking about the beautiful black one "The other is for undercover missions."

She studied him as he told her, his mind already buried in tactics. "It is forgettable for a reason. When I don't want to be recognized, I don't want to be recognized in any way. This shuttle is hard to spot, pinpoint and follow. It looks like nothing, it is the perfect casual camouflage. It attracts no attention, and that is exactly why it serves its purpose really well."

He wasn't playing games, that was for sure.

Not even seeing her impressed expression, he turned around and pointed at the small corridor next to the elevator shaft.

"You'll find the gym behind here."

"Right."

And they were riding the elevator again.

Their next destination was the bowels of the ship. As they exited the lift, all Jane saw was endless, narrow corridors with countless doors. She was a bit confused at first.

"This place is supposed to hold the drive core?" she asked, looking at the turian who had a mysterious, knowing look on.

"And other mainframes, such as Ilsa's hardware, the main guns and other components."

"How do you get around here?" Jane asked, looking at the endless corridors and unmarked doors, as the maze it really was. She started to wonder if this was on purpose.

"I do it easily, but I own this ship." he nodded, cold. "I am a spectre, Jane. I have lots of enemies. A lot of people want me dead and would do anything to make that happen. Although unlikely, there is a chance that I might have to face unauthorized personnel on board someday. And when that happens I _want_ them to get lost in here. In stressful situations, most organic's brains get confused with navigation if they have to turn around all the time. These corridors are doing exactly that, make them wander until they get lost. Three seconds of confusion for them means three seconds of advance for me."

"If there is an emergency, it can trap you too, you know. Not to mention, if someone is in here lost, what is the guarantee that you're going to find them?"

He scoffed.

"Hardly. You see, what the intruder doesn't know is this ship is riddled with service tunnels. Every single room has at least three secret openings to passages that lead to different parts of the ship, at least one of them leading here." he was explaining this, like he was uncovering a great story "I know all of these tunnels, their location and their exit. Anyone who wants to come in will never be able to separate me from any part of the ship. Especially not from these rooms."

He looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

"This is the most expensive and important part of the ship. This is the heart of Sovereign. It is well protected."

She looked at him for a long, silent second.

He spoke with such a pride, that amazed her for some reason. He seemed less demonic in the pale lights of these corridors, and more like a tactician in his comfort zone. It was apparent to her that he knew every single part of this vessel and was taking good care of it. For some reason it made her feel… safe.

She spoke, but quietly. "Why are you showing me all of this? Trusting a human with crucial secrets like this should be as far from you as anything can get."

His eyes narrowed as his thoughts came alive.

Of course it was all logical.

"You're a spectre." he purred on his metallic voice "If you're going to be working with me, then you need to know this. Otherwise our mission might suffer, and I will not let that happen."

She looked back at the corridors, the greyish walls, the dim lights, the darkness.

"Let's go."

* * *

The doors swooshed closed behind Jane's back as she entered her quarters Saren showed her to. She looked at the room and thought that this was going to be her life now. The room had a king size bed, a small bathroom and a little working area. It was simple, almost lifeless. But even then, she never imagined he would have a guest room at all. Guess he needed it in case some important guests would come around.

That would suit him.

She smiled. She went to drop her bag next to the bed, and went to jump in and turned to look at the ceiling, hushing her hair away from her face. An hour ago she was bitter about being bored and now she was on a spectre's private ship, with a promise of a life worthy to live.

It was apparent to her that Saren was a loner, and nothing could have proven that more than having no crew. It was weird to her, but the more she tried to think with his head, the more it made sense. Less cost, less management, everything automized, not having to worry about other's lives. Not like he was someone who would be worried over lives… she imagined he'd leave a lot of bodies everywhere he went. That was in his service record, and she expected nothing less.

She read a lot about him in his record and some of that stuff was frightening. A ruthless war hero, chosen to be spectre at the age of only 20, completing numerous critical assignments one after another with such a speed and efficiency that was more than impressive. At this point he was doing this for almost 20 years. No slip up. All that was left was the job done, and nothing else. And he was undoubtedly in his prime.

It was no wonder that he was the favourite agent of the Council… with this ship and the level of security it had, his background, his achievements… he seemed perfect. She realized she had never met a turian even similar to him. Those silver plates, his eyes… his whole being was eerie, but so interesting at the same time.

But she knew this wasn't going to be this easy. He was closed off, and she was pretty sure that there was something more to him than just that. He will work with her, but she will need to earn his respect.

* * *

Saren was sitting in the lounge at the table, going through his omni tool. He was looking at the report from Noveria that was sent to him regarding the emergency, but his mind wasn't exactly at the right place. He was thinking about that woman who was now in her room. Her room. It was his room, she was just staying in it. Although Jane so far was convincing, he was pretty sure that at some point that is going to change. His xenophobia was raging inside him, cursing the day he let a human on his ship, but at the same time he saw something in her he just couldn't leave behind. What is this going to lead to…

His thoughts got interrupted as he heard noise from the end of the hall, and looked to see Jane coming out of her room. She was going right in his direction and a part of him wasn't even upset at that. He wasn't sure if that was because he finally found someone who shared his interests as a spectre, or because she wasn't repulsive like the other humans.

"Do you have a coffee machine?" she asked as she stepped next to him. He tilted his head to point in the direction of the bar at the side of the lounge, equipped with a grand coffee machine. "Thanks" she chirped as she went over there to make use of the machine.

"While you're at it, make some fo-"

He was interrupted: "Sure. How do you like it?" she asked as she pulled out the kahve, which was the turian equivalent of coffee, out of the cupboards.

"Black." he answered shortly, clearly not happy that he was cut off.

Of course black, she thought. For some reason it suited him so much. She couldn't imagine him over a fluffy, soft latte. She smiled even at the thought of that.

"So" she started, turning to face him from the bar "Care to let me in on the emergency on Noveria?"

He looked at his omni tool.

"I own shares of a company stationed at Noveria called Binary Helix. It's a company doing biotic amp research. It appears some unidentified creatures somehow attacked the lab and now the whole facility is under lockdown. Massive amounts of research is in danger, and it seems most security measures failed. They need someone who can fix the situation, and it comes handy that I am a spectre." As he shared the info it was apparent that he was deeply bothered by all of this.

"And it's up to you to fix that?" she asked, pouring out the coffee "Stakeholders are not supposed to just jump into any operation like this."

She sat down and handed him his coffee as well. He took it and showed her his omni tool.

"Look at the report."

She glossed through the details.

Code Omega local emergency code sent to Noveria controls, facility functions and VI shutdown, but all external defenses are still in place.

"External defenses… not harmed?" she read, looking back up at him. How could a facility suffer an attack by "creatures" without any of its defenses collapsing or at least reporting error? It wasn't adding up. "Are you suspicious the attack came from the inside?"

His mandibles twitched in a barely noticeable way. She was quick. Quicker than he thought she was going to be.

"I want to see personally… I don't yet know what they are doing inside there" he growled, a promise of death in his voice "But there will be hell to pay."

A shiver ran down her spine. She did not want to be his enemy.

But now he'll see what she can do… in their first operation together.


	5. Boss around here

Saren moved through Port Hanshan like it was his. It was apparent to Jane that he was one of the major stakeholders of one of the corporations lodging here, seeing how security let him through without a question asked. They didn't even dare ask questions about Jane: it seemed it was more than enough that she was at Saren's side. No one wanted to anger the beast who was going through security with an expression of a cold hearted murderer.

There was a blizzard out there, but they still gave him a mako so they could leave for Peak 15. And even though Saren trusted Nihlus' recommendations, he decided he wanted to see how Jane drove, so he seamlessly offered her the wheel when entering the vehicle.

He didn't know that that would be one his most regretted decisions.

That was because Jane drove like a madman: she revved up that poor mako to its limits and flew through the mountains like a rocket. She seemed to have no fear of falling down into oblivion as she drove around the snowy cliffs, but Saren seriously feared for his life. And he wasn't doing that very often.

She was laughing the whole time, and Saren questioned what the hell did he do by taking this hellish woman by his side. But to his surprise they didn't die a horrible death: she was driving like a maniac, yes, but she handled the wheel as a true professional at the same time. She made the mako pass the obstacles so closely, it frightened him, but not a scratch of damage was done to the vehicle. It seemed she knew exactly what she was doing, she was just squeezing as much fun out of it as she could. When they finally stopped at the Binary Helix facility, Saren escaped from the mako as fast as he could.

"Spirits!" he growled as he jumped out, his feet sinking into the deep snow. "What is wrong with you?"

"Ooh, what a ride! You didn't enjoy it?" she laughed, she too jumping from the vehicle. She fell in the snow as well.

Saren came around the rover, raging. He was going to say some really rude stuff to her, but as he saw her, he almost laughed out loud instead.

She was a lot smaller than him, so when he sank in the snow to just below his knee, she sank in to her thighs. She was standing there, buried in the snow, struggling to take even a step.

All his anger flew away. The first human spectre, the mighty Jane Shepard stuck in snow.

He snickered under his breath.

"Do you need help?" he asked, his voice thick with amusement. She looked at him and even through her helmet he felt the fire in her eyes light up.

"I can manage!" she raged, wiggling her arms as she tried to force her body through the snow.

"I can see that" he said sarcastically, stepping to her "But while you struggle, my investment is being ruined."

She looked up at him, just getting ready to snap back at him, when she felt his hands come to her hips and gripping her sides, lifting her from the ground. He casually picked her up on his shoulder, holding her tight by her legs that wanted to dangle in the air.

"What the fuck!" she screamed, too taken aback to even protest. Even in armor she was light as a feather, and he carried her to the entrance of the facility with ease. He hacked through the door with his free hand, then stepped in. He put her down on the ground in there. "What is wrong with you?" she came at him "You can't just pick me up like you please, I'm not a sack of potatoes!"

"I have no idea what potatoes are" he growled "But I have no time for you getting stuck in some snow. We have a job here, so you better get faster, or I might just change my mind about our partnership!"

She didn't understand.

He looked amused and angry at the same time.

" _You_ asked me to be your partner!" she argued, seeing him pass by her, like he wasn't even listening.

"And I'm starting to regret it..." he said as he pulled his gun out, scanning the hangar they entered. "The first ever human spectre… drives like a maniac and sinks in snow…. What a joke..."

She heard him cough under his breath.

She was such an idiot… he was teasing her for his own fun. She smiled when she realized this.

"What a joke?" she asked, now on a provocative tone "Like the brutal turian spectre who is afraid like a little girl when a mako goes faster than walking pace?"

That got under his plates.

He turned back, looking right in her eyes.

"I will kill you for that someday..."

"I'd like to see you try..."

They stared at each other for a long second, like two predators measuring each other's strengths. Deep down, both of them entertained, but neither of them showing. Their little moment however was ended when they heard noise from behind them. They immediately turned to the source of the sound, finding a bug-like creature at the far end of the hangar. Saren shot it in a second and proceeded to it.

"What is that…?" Jane asked, looking at the corpse of what seemed a giant bug with multiple long legs.

"I'm not sure" he replied, trying to identify the monster "I haven't seen anything like this before."

They proceeded into the facility and managed to restore the VI of the station, to get some information on the breach. The main reactor shut down and the landline connections were severed, but they managed to manually restart everything. The monsters were everywhere it seemed, but it was nothing they couldn't handle: after all, they were both spectres, a few bugs wouldn't stop them.

Saren was curious about that explosive combat style Nihlus told him Jane had, but he hasn't seen much of it so far. He knew she had biotics, but none of that was used so far. Of course there was no need for them at this point, but he was keeping an eye on her constantly, waiting for the magic happen. He wanted to see if she was as good as Nihlus said.

They eventually ended up restoring the tram systems and made their way to Rift station which was the main research facility. The first thing they ran into was security. They almost got shot as they exited the elevator, but the little party of humans they found quickly lowered their weapons when they saw they weren't monsters.

"Watch your guns..." was all Saren said as he too lowered his gun, stepping to the little team.

"My apologies. You can never be too careful with these abominations running around… But you're not monsters, and that's enough for me to not shoot." greeted the man who stood at the entrance to the main level with two men by his side in a makeshift barricade. It seemed like they were some sort of defense line protecting the rest of the labs. "But I'd like to know who you are."

"My name should not concern you." Saren immediately said without introduction, eyeing the human who he already hated "It should be enough that I have come to save your sorry ass from ruining my investment."

Jane buried her face in her palm. What a gentleman Saren was indeed.

"I'm Jane Shepard, and this is Saren Arterius. We're Council spectres and investors of Binary Helix." she said, taking over the conversation instead. Saren looked at her, spotting her little lie about both of them being stakeholders. "We have received word about the emergency situation, and came to assess the damage on top of solving whatever problem you have. It is best if you work with us, considering your life and livelihood depends on whatever happens here."

Her tone was diplomatic, but a bit spicy towards the very end, letting the man know who he is facing. It seemed to have worked.

"I'm Captain Ventralis" the man started, eyeing Saren who had a frustrated expression on his face. Humans… humans everywhere. "I am the Chief Security Officer of this facility. As you can see I lead the defense against the aliens." he started "They attacked last week. The hot labs had to be sealed, but they are everywhere in the tunnels, keeping the research team under constant threat. Not to mention we cannot get into the hot labs to eradicate most of the monsters."

"Where did the creatures come from? Inside or outside?" Saren asked, now more concerned with the facts, rather than the officer being human.

"I have no idea" he answered honestly "But if you ask me, stupid labs like this exist to experiment on shit that gets people killed."

" _Stupid_ labs like this exist to further biotic amp improvement that lets _your_ soldiers have implants that don't give them headaches every 5 minutes" Saren snapped "Do you at least know what experiments were underway here?"

Ventralis looked at Saren like he already wanted to kill the turian.

"I am the security lead of Rift station, not the research lead. I'm not supposed to know what experiments they run here. As long as nobody starts dying, it's not my business."

"It should be your business as security lead" Jane interrupted "Part of security is knowing exactly what could pose a threat to the research centre, which most of the time is the research itself being done."

The man looked at them like they were spies. He clearly did not like this examination they put him through, and it was apparent that he wasn't as friendly as it first seemed.

"Who is the research lead?" Saren asked.

"Dr Cohen. He's inside."

"We're going in." and with that Saren passed the man and looked at Jane to follow him. She fell behind him and they entered the elevator that led to the research centre.

"They're hiding something." Jane noted, looking at the turian who was visibly angry by now. He said nothing in response to her, and as the elevator doors opened, revealing the central hub of the facility, he looked through the scientists grouping around. He went in without saying anything, and looked for the doctor's office. Once he found the door, he turned back to Jane:

"You stay here" he commanded "I'll end this nonsense."

"What?" asked Jane, surprised "And you just leave me here? I'm not your guard to leave behind!"

"I said you stay here!" he growled "None of this business concerns you, so you will do as I say!"

And as he finished, he opened the door, barged in and locked it from the inside. She just stood there, dumbfounded by his rudeness. Why on earth did he even bring her along if he wanted to leave her out of everything!? Even if she was a human, they were partners now and she did not like to be treated like this. She wasn't his employee to order around.

She felt the anger build up in her with every second, but there was nothing she could do. She turned around to see the whole lab look at her.

"Who are you?" a scientist asked.

"Jane Shepard, Council spectre. The turian you saw just now is another spectre. We've come to neutralize the threat in this place, so you better let me know what the fuck is going on here!" she said, looking around, losing her patience. The people all took a step back, visibly wary of her presence. There was nothing right with this place.

"These creatures attacked us out of the blue!" one of them said, looking at the others.

"Bullshit!" she snapped "The bugs came from the inside, seeing how your outer defenses are magically unharmed! So it is time everyone here stops fucking around!"

* * *

Saren entered Dr. Cohen's office, shutting the door violently behind him, scaring the hell out of the scientist who lodged in there. He stood up as the turian entered, but not having any defense of his own, he just stood there, dumbfounded. Saren turned to face him with the face of a devil.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Saren asked, slowly stepping closer to the human scientist, who backed away behind his desk.

"Who are you?" he asked in complete fear.

"Saren Arterius, if that says something, you idiot!"

The man's eyes widened, realizing he's facing one of the investors of the company: "These creatures attacked us! We couldn't… We had no chance!"

But Saren was not having it.

He went right for the man, going through his office like a maddened monster, his eyes flaying Cohen alive who couldn't back any further into the wall.

"I am not dumb, like the other stupid investors" Saren growled right into his face, his range building up inside him "I know the bugs didn't attack from the outside. You won't be able to fool me."

The man looked conflicted and it only confirmed Saren's suspicion. After a second, it seemed like the doctor has made a decision because his face changed. He had no way out, neither this room, nor this situation. There was no point hiding anymore.

"They are not bugs" he started, his expression turning dark "They are rachni."

Saren felt a veil of bloody anger fall on his eyes: "What did you say..."

"Rachni." he repeated "We found an egg, and it turned out to be a queen. I have decided to clone it, so we can harvest the toxins they secrete. We developed a bio-weapon from that toxin."

At this point Saren was entirely sure that this lab, Cohen and the other investors were all dumbfucks. Finding rachni… keeping it a secret, and then sending him to clean up the mess. He was going to kill the whole leaderboard for this. He stepped to the man, trapping him at the wall effectively.

"Who is the customer?" he asked slowly, his voice penetrating Cohen's mind.

"No one. We-"

" **I asked who ordered the weapon!"** he shouted, his talons instantly gripping the scientist by the neck and slamming him to the wall. His eyes were throwing fire as the man's head crashed into the metal.

"Terminus...systems..."

As Saren still held the human to the wall, his thoughts started racing. The Terminus systems gave home to basically everything that could ever want to attack the Council, or other races. Vorcha, batarians, geth… he needed to know more, but not from this man.

"Your research ends here.." he murmured, squeezing the doctor's throat, slowly strangling him to death, but before he could finish, he suddenly felt a stinging flash of pain in his neck that jerked his body, causing him to let go of the scientist and fall back.

His vision immediately blurred and an unfamiliar pain bolted into his insides, trapping his breath. Dr Cohen rose up from the ground, massaging his neck.

"I won't let you ruin this deal.." he coughed, raising up an empty syringe in his hand, showing it off to Saren who was falling back with every step, his body not responding to him anymore. "This is the toxin from the rachni" Cohen continued, now stepping toward Saren, like he won a battle "In about 10 minutes, it will kill you."

The turian tried to speak, but he couldn't get enough air to even growl at the man. His mandibles were numb, his legs were violently shaking, and as he tried to keep his balance, he crashed into an operating table nearby, knocking it up and falling on the ground in the process. As he fell to the floor it felt like all of his bones broke at once, and his vision went almost black.

"Fuck..." he murmured, coughing for air.

* * *

Jane heard a very loud thud and equipment falling everywhere in the room behind her, and she instinctively turned around.

"Saren!?" she called him through the comms, but there was no reply. "Saren!" she called again, but when there was still no reply, she knew that something was terribly wrong. She stepped to the door quickly, raised her omni tool and started bypassing the lock immediately.

She would have succeeded, but she felt a heavy weight dropping down on her suddenly, in the form of one of the scientists who jumped on her back.

"What are you doing?" she shouted, turning back, and pushed the man off of her back, only to realize the other scientists were also jumping onto her, trying to restrict and hit her. She pushed all of them off, knocking two out in the process. When she was on her feet again she raised her gun, pointing it at the scientists who all seemed mad suddenly.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked, backing to the door and hitting the button to resume the bypass. "It was your experiment, wasn't it? There was no outside threat, no unexpected creatures, right? You did this all yourselves!"

"Dr Cohen's experiment will bring us unexplainable riches" one of them said "The rachni toxin will be one of the most well developed bio weapons of our history!"

She couldn't believe her ears.

Rachni? That's what those creatures were? And these men were making a bio weapon?

"And you call yourselves scientists?" she screamed, her blood boiling from the anger that shook her to her bones. Her face distorted with disgust.

But she didn't have much time to digest what was said since the bypass finished and the door behind her opened. She turned, and saw the little office with a laughing, old human scientist in it, and Saren on the floor, his limbs twisting from pain, his mouth open as he was desperate to breathe.

"Saren!" her voice rang in his ears as she fell to her knees next to him, propping his aching head on her legs. "What did you do to him?" she shouted to the doctor in the room.

"Ah, so you didn't come alone..." Cohen said with a sour face, the look of a murderer in his eyes.

"What did you do to him?" she repeated her question, her voice travelling through the room like thunder.

"You don't have to worry about that. The toxin I injected him will kill him faster than you could do anything."

"What? Where is the antidote?" she screamed "Give it to me, or you will face some consequences..." she threatened.

But the man just laughed.

"Why?" he asked, raising his chin high, fully believing his winning situation. No one was going to take away his millions. "Do you really think I would give it to you?"

"You will." she hissed, her expression now cold as ice, her anger subsiding, turning into something much more dangerous.

"Why?" the doctor laughed again, playing his cards in what he thought was his game. "You're going to kill me if I don't?"

Jane stood up, letting Saren go and pointed her gun right at the doctor. "Damn right." she said calmly, only the fire in her eyes giving away her emotion.

Cohen's smile froze onto his face.

She pulled the trigger, shooting the man right in the head, who immediately fell to the ground, revealing a splatter of blood on the wall behind him. She slowly turned around, only hearing Saren's approving cough vaguely. She stepped over him and approached the scientists outside, stepping in the middle of them like a dangerous beast.

"I suggest you get that fucking antidote right here to me immediately, or I'm going to butcher all of you right now!"

Her threat visibly had the scientists in conflict, looking at each other confused as to what was the next step. Their boss was shot right in front of their eyes, and they were not so eager to attack her anymore.

"All right, let me help you a little bit" she said, stepping even closer to them, her eyes throwing sparks that had the men freeze in their movements "Whoever you wanted to sell this weapon to, was probably only in contact with that disgusting worm I just shot. Your deal is no more, but you can still keep your poor sorry lives. Or I can shoot all of you down like animals… and believe me, after this it would be my pleasure to butcher you..."

Not even a second later, one of the scientists ran off, and returning in a minute with a syringe in his hands. The man stepped to her, cautiously reaching to her with it, that Jane snatched from him within a second. She kneeled again to Saren, taking his head in her palm.

She looked in his blue eyes, that were almost closed from the fatigue the poison gave him. She leaned in close to his face, and whispered:

"I'm not sure if I should give this to you now… you know."

The turian's eyes snapped wide open, his breath quickening, and she saw the fire in him reignite at her words. What did she say?

"I am your partner, not your employee. Treat me as such, then." she demanded, her piercing eyes telling of her seriousness. He was lying half dead in the arms of a human who dares to threaten him? This woman was no joke. Nihlus was right.

"Right." he exhaled, gathering all his strength to say this short word. Jane smiled slightly, accepting his response, her face suddenly soft. He knew now that she was fucking crazy.

She carefully turned his head slightly to feel the vein on his neck, then slowly sank the syringe in his skin where it was soft, just below his ear. He closed his eyes and felt the pain slowly fade away, only the blurriness of the world still clinging onto him. He felt a hand on the side of his face and he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

Jane watched as the spectre blacked out, his mandibles relaxed as the pain eased away from his body. She raised a hand to his face to turn it to her, a soft smile unconsciously creeping to her face. For a second he seemed like a sleeping beast, at peace, not dangerous anymore. As she looked at his face, it was then that she noticed the many, small scars running along his plates. She had gloves on, but still could feel the roughness as she ran her fingers along his temple.

It was a good couple of minutes before he finally, slowly opened his eyes.

* * *

Saren was sitting in the mako as Jane drove, looking out at the scenery of the mountains, already on their way back to Port Hanshan.

The rachni have been dealt with, the whole entire hot lab was sinked into the ice, as per proper emergency protocols. The science team will be dealt with by the authorities, but they did save everything they could from Cohen's computer about the toxin. He felt like shit, his body was still suffering a bit from the exposure to the poison, and on top of the horrendous headache it gave him, he was absolutely furious with Jane.

How did she dare hesitate giving him the antidote? Even if it was just her way of getting him to acknowledge she was his equal, it still caused his blood to boil. He was never in a position ever where a woman held power over him and he couldn't grasp how it even happened. He looked over to the wheel at the woman, who was now driving properly, not in a crazy way, as if she knew how bad his head hurt.

She was a mix of absolute crazy dangerous, and caring somehow.

He'll going to teach her who the boss is around here. Very soon.


	6. Interlude

The Noverian sun caught the Sovereign in the docks of port Hanshan, since they had to stay the whole day to handle official matters regarding Binary Helix. First thing in the morning, Saren decided to speak to the other shareholders.

And to say it was a dread was an understatement.

Cohen mentioned the Terminus systems, but that didn't mean that the stakeholders couldn't arrange the deal through external help to mask their intentions, so he had to talk to them. But they knew nothing about the whole ordeal, and when they said that none of them knew about Cohen's deal, he believed them. They were businessmen, yes, but not war criminals. None of them had military background connections, nor interest in a bio weapons. They were also completely incompetent when it came to this topic, as Binary Helix's major focus was widespread research of biotic amps - to make the most money possible. A single sell bio weapon just simply didn't fit the picture for them.

But this also unfortunately meant that Cohen was working without the knowledge of the owners to sell the toxin to a third party, that could be anyone in the Terminus systems. The trail went cold for now, at least until his agents go through Cohen's personal records and data in search of clues.

After all, he couldn't ignore a buyer for a potential superweapon. Whoever that was, was posing an immense passive threat to the Council and galactic stability.

He was deep in these thoughts as he left the comms room and wandered down on the ship, absentmindedly stepping out of the elevator when he finally was returned to reality by some noise. He looked up from his thoughts in the hangar, registering the sounds came from the training room. That's right, he wasn't alone anymore. That woman lodged on his ship now, and after what happened at Peak 15, his thoughts have been all over the place regarding her.

How dare that woman force him… how dare she play with him like that… In these moments he hated her with all his heart. No one was ordering him around, no one had power over him, it wasn't happening. As he made his way to the gym he prepared to make sure she learns her lesson as soon as possible.

When the gym door swooshed open she didn't even notice. She was right there in the middle of the large training room, viciously attacking a punching bag. He stopped at the entrance for a second to look at her, use the time he had until she notices him. And he had a lot, because humans were very self absorbed, he knew that, their concentration swallowed them up completely.

And she was swallowed up as well. That strange, fire red coloured hair of hers was out now, flying in the air as she hit the bag over and over again with commendable speed. She was getting faster and faster, pouring all of her into executing the punches the right way, one after another. He tilted his head as he examined her, her small figure moving with a speed of a rocket, now destroying the bag.

She panted as she progressed, firing her fist into the bag, the plates of the ceiling almost moving where it was hung. Then, at the apex of her speed she stopped and almost kicked herself away from the bag. She just looked at it like it was her mortal enemy, then let out a long, ragged breath.

She was still in it, even after stopping. And though she only concentrated on the bag till now, her senses were sharper now, and despite Saren not making a single sound, she instinctively turned her head, looking right at him.

It was almost frightening. Her eyes threw dangerous sparks at him, and she looked at him like she knew he was there the whole time. He couldn't figure her out from just looking at her, the viciousness in her completely deterring him from his original thoughts. Now all he saw was her blue eyes and the hair caught in her face that she casually blew away with a breath. In a second she was smiling at him playfully.

"Good morning" was all she said with a grin.

"Hmph" he scoffed, crossing his arms "It hardly is."

"Oh come on!" she tilted her head as she smiled, just coming down from the high the punching session gave her "You're too stiff."

Their eyes met, her fiery one with his cold look, and he took slow steps towards her, his arms still crossed. His stature towered over her small figure. He was like a mountain now: still, cold and silent. But her chest rose and fell from the exercise, she slowly bounced from a leg to the other, a large smile across her cheeks, looking right at him. He felt her energy around him, teasing him, inviting him to try his luck, to play.

He decided he would give her the game she wanted.

And within a beat of a heart his arms opened and the predator made his move, swinging his fist in the air that she barely evaded by crouching down a bit. She moved away that gave him space to come at her and their sparring began. He attacked her viciously, almost surprising her. He wasn't moving a bit a second ago and now he was landing punches with such a force that amazed her. He was a lot slower than her, but she could feel the air move from the weight of his moves, carrying only god knows how much strength. On the other end she was fast as a fox, dancing around him quickly, her dexterity rivaling his brute force.

They exchanged some blows both trying to score a hit, but they only started to get warmed up it seemed. She just smiled as she moved around him evading his fists with amazing intuition, and he followed her with his ice cold expression, every move calculated in his head.

How dare she… he was still filled with anger deep inside.

"Care to explain…" he growled as he moved in with a right swing "... How dare you try to trick me with the antidote?"

This was the first time he heard her laugh out loud.

"Oh! I would have given you the antidote anyway! I don't want to kill you!" she replied cracking up, after almost landing a kick.

"I'm not so sure about that. You human's can't be trusted!" he claimed as he backed her into the wall, then slamming his fist right into the metal where she was a second ago. She slipped from his trap, retaliating from behind, so now he had to evade.

"You do know we're not all the same, right?" she argued. "Also why did you even partner with me if you hate humans?"

He turned with his elbow reaching behind him, almost knocking her out, so she had to duck again. "You're different" he claimed as he used the moment she ducked down to reach down and grab her arm as she moved. This was the moment he was waiting for: he pulled her up and turned, slamming her to the wall hard, and she cried out a little in doing so. The sound for some reason rang alarms in him, but when he looked in her eyes, he saw the same mischief. He propped her to the wall by his arm, holding her neck in place.

She raised her head to avoid being strangled up against the metal, even though his push wasn't hard to hurt her for even a second. They were sparring, not killing each other.

"You're contradicting yourself here..." she hissed, grabbing on his arms, trying to break free.

"I wasn't expecting this kind of treachery from my newest partner.." he specified, his teeth almost showing from the anger now. But was that anger coming really from being angry at her, or from being angry at himself for losing control like that?

Just as this thought crossed his mind, her question froze him.

"Oh, so your problem is that I surprised you? That I surprised the great Saren Arterius?"

"...What?"

It was only a fraction of a second that Jane noticed hesitation in his eyes. She scored with this, and she took the opportunity it created. She used her smallness to fit her leg between them and kicked Saren right in the stomach.

He stumbled back, not expecting the sudden attack and almost lost his balance.

Was this true? That his problem was that she hurt his pride? Was he this stuck up? She realized this that fast? His thoughts were racing a thousand miles, but as he looked into her eyes, his mind was grounded once again.

She was teasing him.

Just like he was teasing her back on Noveria.

Her laugh rang out, so playful and evil. She was indeed explosive, just like Nihlus said. And she wasn't finished: she stood in combat stance again, waiting for him to finish what he started.

And so once again, the beast attacked and they started all over.

But this time it was different. Her moves became even more fluid, dragging him along with her and quickly they danced all around the room throwing kicks and punches like machine guns, and he almost picked up her speed even. What a perverted, sassy woman; daring to play him, tease him, and all while having that darned radiating smile that shone entertainment to him. His anger flew away, and all that remained was their aggressive exchange: trying to score a hit and outdo each other, be faster, stronger, smarter than the other.

They quickly lost track of time, and their movements became fluid. She was on the ground a minute with him on top of her, than it took seconds for him to fall hard and have her fire her fists into his face on the floor, and they rolled, they fought, fell and kicked. Their senses reduced to basic instincts, only the target remained as they fell deep into the sensation of their game.

He wasn't hating her anymore, he just couldn't, seeing how she danced around him, sharpening all his senses. The world soon blurred and only their moves were left, the game, the thrill. He wasn't even seeing her anymore, but felt her cherry scent, heard her laugh, felt her moves. With every hit his muscles stretched, the exercise working him out, expanding his lungs. It was a fresh, exciting feeling.

It wasn't everyday a fight actually moved him.

[ _Forgive me for the intrusion, but the Council is available on vidcomm_ ] came out of nowhere the artificial voice of Ilsa above their head, disrupting them in their game, and both of them stopped.

They looked at each other, now realizing how deep they fell into sparring.

"Right" Saren replied, letting out a long breath, just catching up to reality. His mandible moved slightly as he looked at her, then without saying anything he turned around to exit the room.

She stood there, panting where he left her.

His back moved as he breathed heavily from their fight. Her eyes lingered on him while he was leaving, and she was only now coming back to earth. She completely lost all of her mind during their fight, her body was moving on its own. There wasn't a single mistake in any of his moves that he executed like an adept killer. She had good fights in her life, but this was something else. The sheer strength he presented swept her senses away and made her move faster than she ever had to up till now. A smile slowly crept onto her face as she realized how entertaining this was.

This was exactly what she expected from a first class spectre.

"Coming?" she heard him ask as he turned back, waiting for her to follow. She smiled and stepped out of the room with him.

* * *

"This was only their first collaboration, why would she be out already?" Tevos asked from Valern while making sure she was ready for the call. They received a message from Saren regarding an urgent topic of his Noverian operation that he did not specify. This wasn't an assigned mission for him of course, which meant something either went really wrong, or he acquired some sort of information that concerned them as well. Their favourite spectre wasn't asking for meetings very often, only if it was of utmost urgency.

"That girl may be good, but he's Saren. Someone like him would never bare a human by his side for long." Valern replied, checking his appearance.

Sparatus was fiddling with the console in front of them, setting up the link: "I wouldn't be so sure about that. The fact he agreed to partner with Shepard is a miracle in itself."

"That's what I'm trying to say, Valern" Tevos nodded eagerly.

"I just hope we'll be over this soon, I have places to go today..."

They rolled their eyes at Valern's comment. Salarians and their patience.

The next moment the link was established and the holo of Saren and Shepard popped up in front of them. The Council members looked at each other.

Both spectres were practically out of breath, and not nearly properly dressed. The turian wore a bare minimum training gear and the human only had on a tiny short and a tank top. Sparatus' expression became dark as a black hole that very much amused the hell out of Tevos, even though the sight was pretty much a surprise for her as well. Even through the holo they saw Saren's eyes fire into Sparatus'.

"We're training" he clarified right away on a sharp tone, and Sparatus returned his gaze. The mere thought of Sparatus imagining something misunderstandable creeped Saren out. He hated politicians and Sparatus was no exception, and now he clearly thought he made a move on Jane right after their first mission… did this turian have no morals?

"Right..." Sparatus hissed quietly.

"And the purpose of our meeting is...?" Valern intervened with an emotionless face, like a stone.

"One of my partially owned facilities suffered an emergency situation" Saren started, removing his gaze from the other turian and concentrated on the topic "As it turned out the research centre gone rogue. They scored a deal with the Terminus systems to sell a bio weapon made of rachni toxin."

The Council members looked at each other, all of them forgetting the recent little interlude.

"Bio weapon? Rachni?" Tevos hissed.

"The lead researcher Dr. Zev Cohen was breeding rachni to produce a super toxin" Jane added.

"How did they find rachni?"

"We don't know yet." Saren continued "My agents are working through the research data as we speak. The rachni were eradicated and the danger contained, but our most immediate concern is the buyer."

"Terminus always made sure to oppose Council space whenever possible, but this is going a little too far..." Valern commented with still not much more emotion than before.

"This could cause some issues." said Sparatus, looking together with Tevos "Saren, Shepard, find the buyer. This is your top priority now."

"You read my mind." was all he replied.

"We'll be looking to hear from you soon." said Tevos with a polite, very official nod and they severed the connection.

Sparatus immediately stepped away from the console and turned to leave. "I'm out of here..." Tevos followed him, leaving Valern far behind.

"What's gotten into you?"

"It was a terrible idea to let them partner… that girl is going to steer his attention away from his real purpose." the turian turned back, his white marks stark against the dim lights of the chamber "Serving us."

She shook her head, lightly putting her hand on his arm. "We don't know that yet. And it's not like we could stop him just like that."

His face turned sour.

She was right in every respect. Control was the cost of having the best in the galaxy.

* * *

Jane stood at the bar in Hanshan, lightly shaking the ice up in her whiskey she just got. She was leaning on the bartop, deep in thought, gazing from far away at her turian partner sitting in the darkest corner of the place. His silver plates seemed red in the club's light along with his greyish hoodie. He was buried in his omni tool, possibly going through plans, weapons, traps, upgrades, anything that could further him in his grand plan of ridding the galaxy from its scum. They came here to have some drinks after Saren managed to finish all the legal obligations concerning the temporary shutdown of the Binary Helix facility, and now he was there, buried in work again, juggling a glass of horosk in his other hand.

He was so precise and cold at first when they fought back on the Sovereign. He remained just like that all the way, but something appeared in him she couldn't really put her finger on. It was a lingering chaos inside him that he let loose a bit while sparring with her.

She wanted to see more of that for some reason.

"Excuse me" she heard just from behind her back, and she moved in the direction of the voice.

A turian was behind her who couldn't really fit to the bar from the lots of people to put his empty glass down.

"Sorry" she mumbled, moving out of the way, letting the turian reach the bar.

"This place is awfully small" he said as he moved back a bit, revealing a reserved, polite smile.

"Indeed" she returned the smile out of courtesy, looking at his elegant, grey face paint.

"You have a beautiful smile" he complimented her, and she laughed a bit nervously. Could he have pulled out a more boring compliment? Beautiful smile… she heard this thousands of times before, and even though the turian did seem handsome, she was already bored. What is this about men finding her at bars?

"Thank you." she replied politely.

"Lorik" he introduced himself "Pleasure to meet you."

"Jane." she replied emotionlessly "I'm sorry, but I have to go now, someone's waiting for me."

His face got a bit sad suddenly.

"Oh. Of course."

She stepped away slowly, making her way to the corner Saren sat in. She hopped down into the sofa with her back turned to Lorik who stayed at the bar and sadly ordered a drink. No luck today for him.

"Is there anything?" Jane asked from Saren, idly shaking up her drink again. She wished they had something already on Cohen, she was curious who was behind all of this bio weapon mess.

"Apart from that turian staring me to death?" he raised his brow, looking up from his omni tool for just a second "No, nothing."

"What?" she asked, cautiously looking back behind her, realizing the piercing look the turian she just met shot at Saren. He thought they were together… she giggled a bit at the situation.

"I suggest you curb your flirting, you attract attention.." Saren commented.

"Says the turian who walks around Hanshan like he owns the whole planet." she replied smiling, receiving a questioning look in return. "And besides, he came up to me."

"Oh!" he breathed, sitting up straight suddenly. "Just got a message, they found something."

Her eyes sparked up.

"Really? What's that?"

"Cohen had a contact he regularly reached out to that is neither his relative or friend nor corporate contact" he explained, reading the message "It's a person from Omega." he looked at her, watching her reaction. "We'll leave for Omega immediately."


	7. Bloodhound76

After Saren received the message, they hurried back to the ship. They left Hanshan in the dark, just as fast as they came.

[ _ETA is 30 hours_ ] chimed Ilsa as they entered the lounge and settled down on the couch. They both were buried in Saren's omni tool, browsing through the information. It seemed multiple emails and calls were made to this contact on Omega, the notable ones cherry picked by Saren's team.

"No wonder your team found this out this fast" said Jane, pulling her legs up under her as she scooted closer to the screen "Calls, emails… could they have used any more obvious comm channels? Announce it on TV perhaps?"

"This is a conversation of a criminally inexperienced but money hungry scientist and a petty criminal" he said looking at the data "I expected something like this. See?" he motioned to the raw data in a separate message "They used basic encryption, they were not expecting to be discovered. Here is the IP, it leads right to the Sahrabarik system."

That was correct. Saren's agents laid everything out and found the tail end of the data quite fast, even if it had to be tracked through half of the galaxy.

"So, who is the contact?" she asked, getting up now and going right to the bar to get a coffee.

Saren didn't immediately reply.

He was looking at the screen with a very strange face. She tried to decipher the emotion, and it almost seemed he was puzzled.

"Bloodhound76" he blurted out eventually.

"I'm sorry?" she asked, now just as puzzled as him, holding the mug in her hand as she froze for a second.

"That is the identity info. Bloodhound76."

She cried out in laughter.

"Are you shitting me?" she squealed, quickly finishing pouring the coffee and ran to him. The screen really had this address as identity info. She almost choked on her words as she said: "Looks like we're up against a real bad guy!"

"Don't let that fool you. This might just be a joke, or a well executed cover." he warned, not a shred of entertainment in his voice. He looked at her drink as she sat down again, then looked at her. "Nothing for me?"

"I don't even know what you drink, how do you expect me to bring you one?" she replied, still a bit cheerful from her laugh previously, obviously not expecting him to want coffee.

"Horosk, clean. It's blue, in the top cupboard." _Bloodhound76_ did not make him smile, but this somehow resulted in an evil smirk… She wondered if he did this to everyone, or if he only used her as a waitress.

"Your only luck is that I have a heart of gold" she smirked back and him and brought him his drink. She sat back down and they continued analyzing the data while consuming their beverages.

"We have 30 hours until Omega, what if the guy melts into thin air by then?"

"The exchange wasn't exactly frequent..." he explained "It's likely he hasn't noticed his contact is gone."

"Yes" she nodded "But even if he is still on Omega… Finding him might be tricky. Unless you can pull some contacts there too."

His eyes narrowed, the blue in them turning darker a bit. "I know someone that might just be able to help us."

"You know, this is the advantage that you have, that I don't" she said, looking into the distance, deep in thought now "Contacts. Experience. You've been doing this for 20 years and travelled the whole galaxy twice."

In contrast to her laughing before, her expression was heavy now. Her eyes narrowed, and her only movements were lightly moving her mug to circle the coffee around in it. She practically said she had no experience but he knew it wasn't true. She's been to war, to countless missions and travels and probably seen her fair share of death already. But she was still so young… and she grew up in the Alliance's bubble.

A day ago she was teasing him like she knew no danger, fought him like an animal, and now here she was, questioning herself, out of the blue. It reminded him of a time, back in the day, when he once doubted himself as well.

"Don't bring yourself down" he said, looking at those red strands of hair covering her eyes "It only brings ruin."

She turned to him, studying him and the look in his eyes she couldn't place immediately.

"You're not in the Alliance anymore." he continued "You too will soon see the galaxy."

His eyes were radiating coldness as usual, but there was a second where she felt comforted by what he said, by his low baritone quietly filling the darkness of the ship. He didn't seem so harsh in these moment, but rather misunderstood. He was considered ruthless, cold hearted, but all she saw was pure experience and willing to do what was necessary.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked, scanning her with a bit of surprise. She didn't even notice she was smiling until he said so, but it was true.

"Nothing" she replied mysteriously, noticing how his mandibles made the slightest move while trying to decipher her. These cool, dim lights of the lounge on the metal walls engulfed his face in a lighting that perfectly fitted him. The grey of his plates, those piercing blue eyes and that almost impossible symmetry in his bones... He looked out of this world to her, and it suddenly amazed her.

"Let's continue then."

* * *

Omega was a living, breathing hub of all the people of the Terminus systems. It was a lot different to the Citadel, a lot less bright and clear cut, and more crowded, unorganized. People were everywhere, half of them in armor with devilish faces and guns behind their backs. Mercenaries and merchants, slaves and kings walking next to each other like it was the most natural thing in the world.

As Jane and Saren entered the bowels of the station that was carved into an asteroid, they quickly blended into the crowds. While crossing halls and tunnels, riding elevators and shuttles, she became fascinated by this place. The architecture was all over the place: each sector of the station had different technology, materials and looks. But the dust, the occasional screams, the stranglingly poor air was everywhere. Just like the vorcha, the batarians and the filth of the galaxy. Omega was the dark star of the Terminus systems, the paradise of the lawless.

"And here we are, blending into the place that embodies everything we want gone from the galaxy..." she whispered to him as they passed through the sea of people to reach a club called Afterlife.

"Be careful what you speak here" he replied, keeping his voice down "Slave traders and gangs have ears everywhere."

They stepped up some stairs, and stopped at the entrance of the club, right under the banner. Saren turned back and looked at Jane:

"Be careful when we meet Aria." his voice rumbled "She's not your average criminal."

"Right" she smiled, and Saren shook his head. But he turned around and they entered the club that was most definitely the heart of this whole place. Businessmen sat at the tables, eagerly watching the dancers high above their heads. They were ordering drinks, some discussing business in the darkest corners, others just lingering about, looking for entertainment, or perhaps their next victim. They walked up some stairs again to a platform high above the floor, looking down on all its people. They were scanned by some guards, but none of their weapons were taken away. And when they finally reached the platform, Saren stepped right on it, greeting the asari there.

She stood up and gracefully greeted him with a nod of the head. She then noticed Shepard and as her hands curled around Saren's left arm to invite him in, her blue eyes threw sparks at Jane.

"Who's this?" the asari asked with such a dangerous poise, that was almost similar to Jane's when they first met. How interesting, Saren thought.

"Aria, meet Jane Shepard, my partner." he introduced her, lightly removing his arm from hers, slightly distancing himself. The asari looked at him, intrigue in her eyes.

"The great Aria" Jane spoke, smiling.

Aria turned to the human, and they took a very good look at each other. This asari was more than beautiful: she was eerie, serious, clearly the queen of this space.

"Humanity's first spectre..." she purred, clearly having looked her up already "You must be quite good, if Saren tolerates you… Considering he treats your kind as no more than dirty slaves.."

Jane saw manipulation before, and she knew what this woman wanted. To make her insecure, possibly angry and to lose her temper. It was evident she was an adept at mind games, but Jane wasn't born yesterday. She replied with a just a smile, and a very annoying one at that: "He doesn't treat me like a slave, and he never will."

Aria let out a small, very controlled laugh, and looked at Saren "Very confident..."

She expected him to be annoyed, he always was around humans, especially women, and after such a cocky comment... But he remained silent, his eyes solid on Jane, only glancing in Aria's direction with half of his attention.

Because in reality, his thoughts were racing. Jane stood there like a statue, not even considering to hide her fierceness from Aria. Aria hated women like these, because they immediately posed a threat to her throne in her mind. And it was evident she didn't quite like Jane, but she was usually more vicious in scenarios like this. Jane didn't even have to say a lot to establish herself as Saren's partner. She was strong and confident, and stood Aria's glance like she was doing this her whole life.

Like she was proud to be his partner.

"But you want more..." Aria started, turning away from both of them, and sat on her couch "You always do. What is it that you want this time?"

Saren turned around to tell their story, putting a stop to his previous thoughts: "We're looking for a thug going by the name "Bloodhound76". We suspect the guy to be involved in drug trading."

Aria looked in her lap, thinking for a second.

"I have no knowledge of any Bloodhound… which means he is probably no one relevant."

"That's what I feared." Saren exhaled.

"We might want to look for someone with knowledge of smaller gangs" Jane inserted "If he's not on your radar, someone less relevant might have the info we need."

"Confident _and_ clever. You won the lottery Saren." Aria commented with a condescending smile, earning a dark glance from Saren.

"You might run this place Aria, but you are testing my patience.."

Her stare at him was hardly professional: "Come on… I just want to see the beast come alive once in a while, you know."

Once in a while? Jane's eyes widened. That was blatant flirting, planting a picture in her head of Saren and Aria going at it privately. But it all seemed logical to her that Saren loved beautiful asari women. She tried to shake the thought and concentrate on the topic at hand.

"I'm not going to reply to that comment" Saren stated coldly.

"Fine" she switched her legs, smiling "Talk to Grizz, he's one of my guys just down the stairs. He collects a lot of the info from lower levels, might be able to help you out."

"Appreciated." the turian nodded, and without saying goodbyes, he just stepped down from Aria's bunk, motioning to Jane to come as well. Once they got off and entered the main floor of entertainment, Jane immediately turned to Saren:

"What a snarky woman, that comment..."

He laughed a bit.

"She likes drama. And she likes turians, especially turians with power. But one can only dream."

She stopped in her tracks. "Wait, so you and her never…?"

"She wanted to get in my pants for almost 10 years now. I could score some pretty nice deals with her just in turn of that little pleasure." He said this with the darkest, sly smile she had seen on him so far. He was so full of himself, but it also kind of suited him.

"What's stopping you? She's stunning." she smiled, not so interested in the answer, but rather intrigued by this playful side of him.

But his expression turned serious, and he stopped to look her in the eye, that is how he hummed:

"I never fuck criminals."

* * *

They talked to Grizz and learned that Bloodhound was a batarian, running a fairly small drug dealing operation in the Kima district. The only reason he was on their map was because he had some run ins with previously prominent dealers in the area, but somehow managed to come out in one piece, earning considerable amount of hate because of that.

So there they went: they took a shuttle to Kima, looking for the guy whose residence was supposed to be in the deeper end of the district, in one of the most dense areas. In the depths of the heaps of ruined metal fabrications people here called homes, it was easy to lose sight of the target, which was most probably the reason Bloodhound chose this place as his residence.

The area was filled with people to the brim, masses rolled on the streets, selling their goods, trying to make a living, or fighting right in the middle of the street. It was hell solidified. Jane could barely stand to keep her guns on her sides.

"What is this shithole..." she growled.

"The slums..." Saren replied "This is why I hate this place."

"Look" she motioned to a corner not far from there, where two batarians exchanged what seemed to be some pills for money… out in the open, not even looking around to check who was looking. "Dealers."

"Let's go." he said, and they quickly made their way to the two.

"Hey" Jane called, stepping to the batarians who seemed annoyed by the distraction.

"Who are you?" one of them asked, eyeing her up and down.

"We're the ones asking the questions" Saren replied, stepping to them, standing close to Jane, showing the batarians that they are up against not one, but two armored strangers. "Do you know Bloodhound?"

One of the batarians, the one with dirt-brown skin swallowed down his nerves and his eyes locked on Saren in less than a second.

"Yes." he replied.

"Where is he?" Jane asked, her hand resting on the heavy pistol by her side, playing with the safety switch.

The batarian looked into the alley next to them: "He lives on the other side of this building, after the alleway, in the big brown. Top floor 76." His head motioned to the other side "I have no idea what business you have with him, but don't kill him. He owes me 5 grand..."

Saren's mandible moved into the tiniest, satisfied smile, while the batarian dealer didn't remove his gaze from him for even a second.

"Good man." was all Saren said and turned around the way the dealer showed them. Jane fell behind him closely, and they crossed the alley. They rounded the corner and Saren immediately stopped.

"That was Bloodhound himself." he whispered, leaning towards Shepard seamlessly.

"I know. The face he made when you mentioned the name gave away everything."

"What are the odds? We ran into the first batarian and it is him." he smiled "It seems you bring good luck."

She glanced at him, a smile in the corner of her mouth.

"I bring more than luck."

"Well then, check if he's still there."

She peeked around the corner, and saw the batarian still talking to his partner, but they soon parted, and the hound looked around. He was probably checking for them, but when he saw nothing, he made his way in the opposite direction.

"He's leaving. We should go."

They entered the alleway again and started in the direction the batarian went. The crowds floating on the street didn't make it easy for them to keep sight of their target, but it also helped to conceal them following him. After a couple minutes of following him down the street, and him constantly turning back to see if he was followed, he spotted silver plates far behind him in the crowd.

He stopped.

Saren and Jane didn't, they changed their direction to sideways, slowly passing through the crowd to avoid suspicion of suddenly stopping. Their eyes were constantly on him in the distance, but after a couple seconds, they saw him pulling something out of his pocket.

It was a gun.

"Fuck!" Saren cursed, and immediately started to push through the crowds to get as close to him as possible, but the batarian was faster.

He raised the gun high up, and shot towards the artificial sky of the station.

And in that second, the people of the street went crazy. The panic separated the people like they were water, pushing and running in every direction, trying to get away from the source of the danger as quickly as possible. And as the people moved, the batarian vanished into the sea of them, and the two spectres started crashing through them.

Saren was going like a hot knife through butter: tossing the people aside like bags, trying to get to that asshole with all his might, fighting the weight of the masses. He looked back for one second only to notice Jane was missing.

As opposed to Saren, she was a lot smaller, and she knew very well how to use it. She just started going against the men when she heard a second shot: from the left side of the street, possibly to cause more confusion, so they would never find him. But it was the very thing that gave the hound away. She now knew which direction he went in, and she started squeezing herself through the mod, sliding between women and men, climbing under their arms, slipping next to them. She moved like a snake, lightly whispering into her comms:

"I can see him, at 10 o'clock."

[Get him!] she heard Saren say in her ears, and she needed no more. The guy separated from the crowd at a small alley, and as soon as she broke away as well, she ran right in there, following him.

The alley led to another street further away, with a lot less people, and Jane ran as best she could, already catching up to the dealer.

"How!?" she heard him shout, and dropping something as he went.

She stretched her left hand out in a swift movement, activating her biotics and sending the grenade into the sky, where it blew into pieces a second later.

"Stop while you can still live!" she screamed after him, getting faster and faster, following him to another alley, jumping over a fence and running up the fire stairs on a building. She jumped into the building where he did through a window, constantly firing her biotics at him, destroying almost everything in their wake. He jumped out another window and she followed him down through the roofs, ending up on the street again.

She had to give it to him, this batarian wasn't fucking around. But when she saw the road ending in a giant hole in the highway, she knew this was the end of it. A grin spread on her face, but was gone as soon as the batarian jumped, firing himself right above the hole, crash landing on the other side.

It was a big obstacle, and that batarian was a lot taller than her, he had it easier. She almost slowed down as she quickly assessed the distance, and whether or not she can make it.

That was when a very familiar silver plated turian showed up from nowhere, looking right into her eyes as he ran to the rip in the road, stopping where the batarian jumped. He must have taken a shortcut…

"Come!" he roared, slamming his feet into the concrete and holding his hands out, grounding himself in the most stable position he could.

He was absolutely crazy, but it made sense. He was a lot stronger, she was a lot faster and lighter, and she already had the acceleration.

Jane gave her all and continued running, almost gliding through the street to Saren, and when she got next to him she jumped right into his hand.

And the turian, using all of his strength, shot her into the air like a bullet, roaring as he pushed her.

She practically flew through above the hole, landing right on the other side, almost on her face from the momentum. From a somersault she immediately snapped up and ran to her target. Saren in the meantime disappeared between the buildings like he did before.

But the batarian was far away again already, and she started to tire. She was fast on shorter distances, but she wasn't a turian who could run miles on end without tiring. But her worries ended, when a thunderlike voice shot from the sky somewhere, and the dealer fell hard on the ground.

She easily caught up to him in seconds, finding the hound bleeding from his right leg.

She turned quickly to the right, following the direction the bullet came from, and for a split second saw someone in possibly a blue helmet remove his rifle from the top of the building nearby, then vanishing.

She heard the stories, but she didn't actually think they were…

"Fucking Archangel!" cried the Bloodhound on the ground, trying to hoist himself up, dragging his leg behind him, only to be kicked back down by Jane, who stepped right on his back.

"Stay down, asshole! Or you'll never see the light of day again..."


	8. Wait

Saren just appeared on the side of the road, arriving to the scene when Jane disarmed the batarian and pushed him further down to the ground, propping his hands behind his back. He heard the shot and now saw the hound's leg was shot, so he turned to Jane:

"Who did this?"

"I don't know..." she started, busy with pushing the batarian down "I think it was Archangel, it was one clean shot."

His eyebrows furrowed, looking around the scene. "Archangel?"

"I only heard about him, he's a vigilante... "

"I know." he stated, stepping close to them and crouched down to the criminal. "And you…"

"Who the fuck are you?" the hound growled like a dirty dog, trying to break free from Jane's hold, even with the immense pain of his leg being shot. But Jane was practically sitting on top of him, not letting him slide for even a second.

"Only I ask questions, dog!" Saren growled "You tried to buy a bio weapon from Zen Cohen's lab… "

"I have no idea what you're talking about..."

The turian looked at Jane, his eyes throwing fire, and his mandible twitched with disgust. She didn't need a single word said to understand him. She reached back and wrapped her fingers around the batarian's wounded leg and squeezed it as hard as she could, making the thug scream out in pain.

"Come again?" Saren asked in a patient, superior tone, his eyes set on the hound's suffering face again.

"It wasn't my idea" he squealed in pain, losing his voice "Our gang leader gave the task, I was only following orders-"

"What gang?" Jane asked, kneeling into his back.

"The White Hand... " he coughed "Please, I don't know anything else."

"Hmph..." he hissed "What a fitting name for a group of shitty drug dealers..." as he said, Saren raised his omni tool and used it to hack into the hound's tool from close proximity. It only took him a second, it seemed the thug had not much protection on.

"I have their coordinates, they're in the far end of the district."

"Great..." Jane hissed, getting off of the criminal and stretching her back. The hound started rolling on the ground, trying to get up with his wounded leg, slowly succeeding. She was thinking if they should let him go or not.

That question was forever answered when Saren raised his weapon, and just out of the blue shot the batarian dead. Jane looked at the criminal falling to the ground.

"Geez..." she commented "You have no chill."

Saren looked at her, raising an eyebrow plate "He would've gone and tell his whole gang."

"Point taken" she said. He did not exactly expect this answer. Humans of the Alliance were usually against killing like this, but she didn't seem bothered. She seemed to understand this was Omega, and just generally didn't seem to give a shit.

He liked that.

It started to look like Jane was annoying him a lot less than he originally expected.

"Let's go and find a place where we can talk." he suggested, and she agreed.

* * *

They quickly rented a room in the district to avoid the streets and locals so they could have a conversation about all of this without the watching eye of the crowds. Everywhere they would have gone there was a danger of being heard, eavesdropped, and Saren didn't like that. The quiet of a simple hotel room was doing the trick for now.

As they entered their room the turian quickly scanned the space for any devices that might be setup to listen in on the guests.

"It seems this place is clear" Saren noted with a long exhale. It seemed he was holding his breath this whole time, only now relaxing.

Jane smiled at that, he was a maniac, but for a good reason. This station was freaky and dangerous, and she too felt like the devil never sleeps here.

"We'll have to assault their base" she proposed while starting to browse on the console on the wall that was mounted for room service the hotel offered. "But with the size of the crowds on the streets… it might be complicated."

"I agree" Saren nodded as he pulled the curtains to avoid being seen from other buildings "We'll go in at night. I don't want any locals or other gangs to interfere."

"Then it's settled."

He left the windows and went to the bathroom to look around and scan that as well for any listening devices "It will be ground assault. That base isn't that big, but we'll have some room to maneuver. I heard you have some commendable biotic skills."

She looked away from the console in the direction of the bathroom, an impish smile spreading across her cheeks.

"You want to see them in action?" she chuckled.

"Damn right." he said as he left the bathroom, putting on an evil smirk himself "I don't accept anything less than perfect… so I suggest you deliver."

"Ooh!" she waved her hand in a roguish manner, pretending as if she was shaken by that threat "My second name is perfection, so don't worry, I won't leave a single target for you..."

"Don't even try that, or I'll get bored and might leave you right there..."

"Saren Arterius leaving behind a free bloodshed?" she teased while putting her hands on her hips "Bullshit."

They shared a glance, both of them satisfied with their banter. After that little chase they were both in good mood, it seems they shared this love for fighting. Jane then turned back to the console, pressing a button on the touchscreen:

"You want something too?"

"What are you doing?"

"Ordering food, of course."

He almost facepalmed. "No. And you would do better not to eat the whole establishment before a gang assault..."

"Pff" she dismissed him "Humans need energy."

"Humans..." he exhaled, leaving her there to sit down in one of the armchairs. He started browsing on the extranet, and got immersed in it so fast, he didn't even pay proper attention when Jane announced she'll take a shower until the food arrives, and he just murmured a robotic "Right.." at her.

He was looking at the info about Archangel on the net.

He was some kind of local hero in the eyes of the Omega locals who had no other chance than to live at this shithole of a station. No one really knew who he was, all that was common knowledge was that he is a turian, usually wears blue armor and lives somewhere within the Kima district, ambushing criminals, gangs and always saving the innocents. Whoever he was, his assistance - even though it helped them - was not at all welcome in Saren's book. He hated others poking into his operations, that was one of the main reasons he never had a partner before.

This vigilante was an unknown in his investigations, and he hated that.

After searching for more info for a good 15 minutes, he suddenly smelled something absolutely heavenly. His first thought was that Jane's order came to their door, and that it apparently was filled with fruits. But as the moments passed, he raised his head and sniffed into the air, eventually narrowing down the source to the bathroom.

The bathroom door opened right in that second and Jane entered the room, covered in her divine cherry scent. But now - possibly caused by the shower she took - it was a lot stronger, lingering around, almost intoxicating him. His mandibles clicked, unconsciously responding to the sweet feeling his mind was filled with now.

"What's wrong?" she asked kindly, tilting her head to the side. She was only wearing her black under armor suit, tightly fitting her. It took a moment for him to answer.

"Nothing." he said with a deadpan face, burying himself into his omni tool. He cursed his sensitive turian nose right now.

She opened the door to get her order in that was left at the door for her and brought it in. It was all kinds of food that she started to immediately devour.

"Are you sure you saw Archangel?" Saren randomly asked, still going through the net, trying to shut his senses down. Being professional was something he was good at, and this was no exception.

"No..." she explained "I saw a figure only, possibly in a blue helmet, but that's it. But the hound did curse out his name loudly."

Saren speculated: "It could have been just an assumption on his part, coming from the fact that Archangel raids the district quite often. Doesn't mean he actually knew it was Archangel."

"I agree" she munched "I bet every criminal in the district blames him for anything bad that happens to them. That could have been anyone."

He looked at her as she ate. She was destroying all the food, she was currently going through some type of fried meat in a coat, stuffing it into her mouth with bare hands. She was eating like a turian child who hadn't had meat for days.

"Right. I don't like it, whoever it was. Stay alert while we're here."

He earned a scolding look from her that was explained by her a second later: "Don't be so pessimistic. Unknowns aren't always necessarily just bad things. What if it was Archangel? And whoever it was, he helped us. Surely that does show something positive."

She was full of contrasts.

She looked so unique, that red hair, the small and beautiful stature, but she was carrying herself like a born spectre. She knew tactics, she was intelligent and calculative when it came to their plans, but so explosive in combat, so wild and free as opposed to being controlled. She was so refined every time but she ate like a real predator. So quick and aggressive in her actions, but so honestly positive at the same time.

She was such a strange creature. He was wondering if he ever met a woman like this… so… unapologetic.

"But if you _really_ think about it, this is Omega." she continued her chain of thought from before, now heading for the bed "From what I've heard and saw, gangs here run drugs, slaverings, whores and whatever you like. Organized crime is the signature of this place, but… I can't really imagine any solid reason anyone would snipe that random criminal if it wasn't to help us. He probably had a lot of enemies, but again this is Omega, you don't need snipers to do the dirty work for you when you can just send someone to beat the shit out of them or shoot them. No one really gives a damn about crime, there is no need for snipers here."

She laid down on the bed, just on top of the bedding, obviously planning a little nap before the night falls. She pulled a pillow under her head and turned to Saren to continue:

"But if you come from the outside, wanting to hunt criminals, sniping them off the map is a very comfortable and viable way to do it, considering everyone is fighting mostly at street level. Until they adapt your ways, you've got the advantage, and that can do a lot of damage." her eyes started to slowly close down as she started to drift. He slowly stood up and and started walking closer, and she followed him with her eyes until they finally closed: "That is why I think it was Archangel..."

And with that she fell asleep.

He smiled as he thought that her logic about Archangel was right on point.

He stepped to the bed and looked at her peacefully breathing. Her red hair fell over her shoulders and the pillow, almost covering her face. She practically sank into it, like it was her own. He sat down, and pulled out his omni tool again. He started working, and as he did, he decided to protect whatever dream was playing out in the mind of the girl on the other side of the king size bed.

* * *

She opened her eyes.

She slowly sat up, her vision foggy from her dreams, but she soon focused on the yellow light of the lamp next to the bed. It lit someone next to her: a turian sitting there, sleeping with his back leaning to the headboard. His omni tool still open, its display showing status reports from the Sovereign. The tool was binded to his arm that rested in his lap, just above a raised leg that rested on the sheets.

She turned and got off the bed to make her way to the windows. She slowly moved away one of the curtains and looked out at the city, alit with lights and ads everywhere. She took a moment, then moved the curtain back and turned to face the beast. She stopped at the bed, and slowly, carefully sat down on it, just next to the sleeping Saren.

His plates were almost golden as the light of the lamp shined on him, casting a harsh shadow down his face. His mandibles were relaxed, raising a tiny bit with every slow breath he took.

She remembered how proud, rude and handsome he was when they first met in the requisitions office. And now here he slept, buried in work, but sleeping so soundly. She couldn't take her eyes off of those silver plates, the many small scars running through them, the shape, the perfect symmetry. He looked so alien, so frightening, but also perfect. He looked nothing like the other turians and she loved that. She would find him in a crowd of thousands if she had to. And that cold, serious personality underneath these plates… she couldn't even imagine what he must've gone through to get to where he is now, how much death and destruction he saw, but he still didn't lose the fire inside. That will to cleanse the galaxy, at any cost.

And he chose her as a partner. Because only she knew. Only she understood. Something in them was the same, she just had to find it.

She raised a hand up carefully. She thought he was going to wake up, jump up, but nothing happened. She touched his cheek, and slowly stroked it, now finally feeling his skin without gloves. It was such an alien but fascinating feeling, it warmed her heart. She tilted her head as she smiled, whispering so lightly:

"Saren..."

He moved just a bit, still half asleep, instinctively sinking his jaw into her palm, and she smiled.

"Saren.." she called again, kindly, while she removed her hand from his face. His blue eyes slowly opened, and they found a soft smile, and hair as red as the sun.

"Hey" he heard her whisper.

He sat up and looked at the clock. It was late already, but they had just enough time.

"I thought you were going to sleep forever" he commented, his look cold on her "And I was right. It's already 1."

"You slept too!" she smiled as she left the bed and started gathering her armor to put it on. "But we should go soon."

Of course. He was going to see what she can really do. That should be interesting.


	9. Assault

**Hi! Hope you still enjoy the fiction, let me know! :) Here's a more action packed chapter. Some more interesting chapters are upcoming, I hope you'll like those too, I'm so excited ;)**

* * *

Chapter 9 - Assault

The night of Omega was dark and dangerous, but the alleys of the station were even worse. They were like tiny labyrinths coursing through the city, reaching into every bit and corner, giving home to the ones who had fallen even further down than the rest of the people of Omega. In one of these alleys stood a guard: a batarian protecting a small door in the deepest end of the alley, staring into the darkness, vigilant.

Out of this darkness jumped his fate, like a passing shadow, a woman with stark red hair, relieving him of the burdens of life. She leaped from the shadows and slammed the gang member right onto the wall, killing him in the process.

Jane's biotics flared as she threw the gangster like a ragdoll to the corner of the alley, clearing the way for the tall turian spectre coming up behind her. Saren nodded silently and they entered the door, and in absence of more guards, they casually took the elevator that brought them down below street level.

When the lift door opened and the two spectres carefully stepped out, the first thing Saren did was to search for a console.

"This place is empty.." whispered Jane, who was making sure in case anyone sees them while they're looking for a security station, they would be dealt with. But they were fast and silent, and Saren quickly found a console. He started hacking immediately, and it seemed he had some great hacking skills, because after a couple short minutes, he had full access over the system. Was there anything he wasn't adept at?

"There" he nodded, looking at the screen once all the bypass was complete "We didn't trigger any security alarms so far..."

"Can you see where we need to go?" Jane asked, constantly keeping her eyes on the corridor.

"It appears that a part of the network is isolated from the rest… " he noted, buried in the data "It's part of the whole, but the info stops there. It looks like a tiny local private network. I cannot get access to it from here."

"That is where the secrets are" speculated Jane.

"Most probably. It's located behind the main warehouse. Let's get going."

They started at once, leaving the console behind. This was going really well, maybe a bit too well. It took only minutes for them to reach the warehouse, that was a giant storage space in the bowels of the building underground. It was filled with large boxes of heavy cargo placed all around. The room was a giant one with internal ventilation, keeping the cargo cool. It was also completely empty, not even one member guarding it.

Saren was approaching the small door at the back of the warehouse with slow steps, his gun firm in his hand: "I don't like this… completely empty. Prepare for an ambush."

She nodded as acknowledgement and scanned the room while Saren hacked the door. She then followed him in and closed the door on them from the inside. She turned to watch as he was hacking once again, leaning over the computer that was at the front of a desk.

This was a small office, dark and gloomy, with many pictures of batarians on the walls.

"What is this place..." she murmured, looking at the room: the articles about batarian terrorist attacks hung up on boards, names and faces of human leaders used as dartz tables…

"Come here" Saren commanded, and Jane stepped to him, looking at the screen with him. He was in the system, scanning through the database of previous operations, loot, and found a pile of information. "Bloodhound was supposed to contact Binary Helix specifically to engineer the toxin… from an egg."

"Egg?" she looked at Saren "That was the rachni egg the scientists found on Noveria?"

"They didn't find it, it was given to them, by this gang."

"I don't understand. How would a lowlife batarian gang have a rachni queen egg?" she proposed, but Saren didn't answer. The same question was lingering in his mind as well, so he dug deeper in search of anything else.

"Moreover" Jane said, stepping away and looking at the walls again "This is a racist anti-human batarian group. And they did their dirty work with humans?" her expression was turning darker by the minute, feeling the anger in her bones building up "Is this a fucking joke?"

"That's because it wasn't their idea" Saren started again, and Jane turned to him once more "This was an assignment, look at this."

The document Saren found was detailing instructions for the transportation of a rachni egg, the contact details and full history of Dr. Zen Cohen and supposed information about Binary Helix. These were all sent from an unknown source, to the gang leader, Grorag Kegrom.

"Who sent this to the batarians?" Jane asked.

"I don't know, but it's evident that the buyer is not this gang… they were only supposed to deliver the weapon..." He suddenly removed his talons from the keyboard.

Something was off here, all of the alarms in his mind were going off, telling him this was not what he was expecting. He half expected this to turn out as another terrorist attempt from the batarian Hegemony, who wanted to get rid of humanity since they day they stepped on the galactic map. But this was external.

This was something else. He touched on something that was a lot bigger than he originally thought.

"We need to get out of here..." Jane hissed, turning towards the turian "None of this is normal."

He quickly saved the data he found, exited the system, then rounded the table to step next to the woman. He opened his mouth to respond to her, when a loud noise interrupted him, coming from outside the small office they were in. They looked at each other, immediately drawing weapons, and ran to the door to slam it open.

When they entered the warehouse again, it was filled with batarian rats, all armored from head to toe, weapons ready. It was a smaller army, at least fifty soldiers.

"Down!" Saren shouted, pushing Jane to the other side, behind some cargo lying in the room. Not even a second later they were buried in gunfire, that ripped apart the cargo, sending white dust into the air all around.

"The Council never learns!" they heard from cover, one of the batarians was going off, shouting at them from behind the gang "They never learn to stop poking their hands into batarian business!"

"This idiot will be the gang leader, this Grorag..." Saren hissed to Jane over the comms, still behind cover "We need him alive."

Jane nodded, then a half smile appeared on her face.

"Now go.." Saren finished, motioning with his head towards the army of thugs, letting her know that this was her moment. As much as he hated to admit, those biotics she had were going to come handy in hs travels, but he still needed to see what she can do. He already knew she was something else, but after their sparring session… he felt there was something more there. He wanted to see it.

And it seemed like she wasn't against it at all, because as soon as he finished his sentence, she disappeared around the far corner of the cover.

And hell broke loose for the batarians.

She charged out so fast from behind the cover, the dust in the air moved around. Her biotic charge landed right in the middle of the batarians, and she crashed into them like a rocket, allowing Saren to jump out of the cover and join in on the fun. He chose a heavy pistol as a weapon, and that was a choice well made.

The batarian's only plan was to bring as many weapons as possible, and gun the intruders down, but that plan went into the shitter as soon as their formation was wrecked by Jane. Her jumping in the middle of them confused them, and now facing in every direction, they couldn't properly utilize their weapons without hitting each other.

A resounding curse left the leader's mouth as he realized what had happened.

At the same time Saren's mandibles twiched in pure joy.

He jumped into the middle of the fight, ripping apart the thugs with his talons, throwing them around and breaking their necks with perfectly punctual moves, his other hand busy shooting them from a couple feet away. He loved weapons, but his true craft was in those giant, sharp, black talons that tore the flesh of his enemies. He moved like a beast, decimating the batarians, only seeing blue flashes of Jane as she roamed around.

He took down another batarian by kicking it in the face, and shooting another one in the chest, immediately searching for more enemies. But as he turned around, he saw a giant blob of blue crashing into his face, and a pair of ocean blue eyes appeared in front of him. Her landing was perfectly calculated, as Jane stopped in front of him, coming out of her charge, just the end of her red hair falling into his face from the momentum.

But behind her another thug appeared, raising his SMG in his hand to slam it into Jane's head, so Saren pushed her out of the way, and shot the batarian right in the head from a foot, while she took down another right behind his back. They both turned and looked at each other: and in a fraction of a second they understood.

This was easy.

They started moving together, in perfect synergy, obliterating thugs with every move. Jane's smile lit up, going from charge to charge, hit to hit. She saw the turian, and he saw her, almost dancing as her biotics flared like fireworks. Saren's talons ripped more batarians than ever before, he was practically throwing them around, right in Jane's way to crush them. And soon all was covered in blood and flames, but amidst the bloodshed their focus was sharper than ever before, and both of them suddenly remembered those moments they shared when they sparred on the Sovereign.

Her moves, the heat in her eyes, the thrill of the kill.

Like the batarians weren't even there anymore, they were in their own little world again, but this time working together, not against each other.

Saren was wondering where she was all this time, why did they meet only just now. She was a killing machine, and this was exactly what he was looking for. That look in the eyes, that heart he heard throbbing as she fought.

It felt right, it felt familiar.

Those moments… it was perfect.

But it ended soon, when all the batarians were gone, lying around them or running away from them. All that remained was them, panting in the middle of the chaos.

Saren turned towards the exit, coming back to reality, seeing the biggest of them all escaping.

"He's getting away!" he growled, not wasting a second to run after the supposed gang leader. Jane followed him with the smile still glued to her face, and the two spectres were up on street level in minutes, running through the alley after Grorag. But after a couple meters a shuttle cruised over their heads, taking off, sending wind in every direction that sent the trash of the alleys high into the air.

"It's him! The shuttle!" Jane hissed, running right to their rented shuttle and jumping in to drive. Saren followed on the other side a second later, growling at Jane to take off immediately. He didn't even care if she was driving like a madman, they didn't have enough time.

Jane took the shuttle off of the ground and turned right around to follow the other one that was now soaring between the tall buildings of the station, desperately trying to get away. She stepped right on the gas and pulled the wheel up to her chest, and their shuttle turned almost upright, shooting up high in the air. The engine cried out in protest, almost giving into the pressure that hit it, but Jane was pushing, switching gear just at the right moment, that propelled them high into the dark sky.

"Go faster, fo spirit's sake, we need the info from him!" Saren commanded, drawing his weapon out again, getting ready for contact.

"This is a rented, shitty, common shuttle!" she snapped back "Next time, bring yours!"

"I will, don't worry..." he murmured under his nose as he looked up and fired his fist into the ceiling of the vehicle, denting the metal, ripping it apart. Soon half of the top part tore off, and the turian stood up, pushed his upper half through the hole and brought his rifle out.

"Come on, baby!" Jane murmured to the vehicle inside, evading incoming traffic as she followed the other shuttle, now high above the buildings. But they were falling behind. The shuttle wasn't up to par with their prey, and when they finally escaped traffic and rose above the skyline, it was far ahead again.

Saren slammed his rifle on the top of the shuttle, a roar escaping him: "Fuck!"

But at that moment, the vehicle in the distance carrying the gang leader jumped up in height, and smoke blew out of its rear end. It slowed down dramatically and as its wheel turned, the engine fired up, it flew to the left, crashing down on one of the skyscrapers.

As they flew through the sky, Saren was looking hard, trying to identify what caused what seemed a malfunction from here, when he saw one silhouette on a rooftop.

A turian in bluish armor, leaning on his sniper rifle, waving two of his talons at them.

They passed him in a second, and Saren tried to turn around to see.

It couldn't be anyone else, he saw the pictures on the extranet. It was Archangel.

He exhaled, letting it go in absence of time, and sat back in the shuttle as Jane landed on the same rooftop the batarian shuttle crashed. Saren jumped right out, throwing his rifle on the ground and walked to the wreck to tear the door open. A wounded, bleeding batarian sat in there, his black face looking away from Saren, trying to escape, climb through the shuttle to the other side, but the spectre had enough.

He reached in and grabbed the gang leader by his ankle and ripped him out of the vehicle and threw him on the ground.

"Please" he cried, backing away from the giant turian.

"Who do you work for, Grorag?" Saren asked, his voice low and raspy, impatience in his icy blue eyes. The thug was frightened, trying to stand up. "Who ordered the bio weapon on Noveria?"

"No one… I..." he mumbled, but stopped as soon as he saw Jane who just exited their shuttle and came up behind Saren's back. "I'm never going to let my plans out in front of a human."

She stopped, this being the first sentence she heard.

Saren looked back, seeing the rage in her eyes appear, but before she could move, he did.

He grabbed the batarian by the neck and lifted him high above the ground, his talons squeezing the air out his lungs. "You're speaking, or you're dead!"

He started squealing in pain. "The humans are taking away everything… they're a... blight on the galaxy… our people suffered because of them..."

He was talking about the Skyllian Blitz...

Jane was in the background, coming forward slowly, like a snake "You attacked us! You came to our colonies and bombed them to the ground because you were trigger happy!" she hissed "I enjoyed killing the lot of you with my bare hands on the Skyllian Verge..."

The batarian tried to break free, his eyes aflame, but all he achieved was a tighter grip around his neck by Saren.

"You… fucking bitch..."

Saren raised the batarian up higher, and with sheer force he slammed Grorag's face into the concrete. The thug winced in pain, but climbed up, facing Saren's gun pushed at his face. Jane couldn't help a smile again.

"I asked you something." said Saren, his voice cold and stern.

"All we did was in order to… drop that weapon on humanity..." Grorag coughed.

"Lie!" Saren growled "You'd never use weapons crafted by humans, no batarian ever would. You're lying. It wasn't your weapon, it wasn't your idea. You had an assignment."

He looked at the ground, trying to keep the blood in his mouth.

"Let me live, and I'll tell you."

"I'll see about that." was Saren's reply.

"We wanted to... " he coughed again, his lungs giving up "Strike back at humanity… but we didn't know how. Then it came… he offered us a deal."

"Who?" Jane asked, stepping next to Saren.

"He called itself the Librarian..." Grorag spit, holding his chest, trying to stand on his feet "He promised us riches and weapons, men to launch a terrorist attack… if we delivered him the rachni toxin. He gave us the egg, the contacts, everything."

"The Librarian..." Saren hummed under his nose, deep in thought.

Jane stepped forward, looking at the batarian: "Where is that Librarian?"

"I don't know..." he managed to stand a bit, coughing blood still, his eyes almost shutting from the pain "Never showed itself. I never spoke to him. All we received were untrackable messages… "

"We already have those..." Jane exhaled, looking at Saren, who lowered his weapon. "He's not helping us anymore."

"Leave." Saren said, turning back to the shuttle, knowing the guy's wounds were so severe, he probably wouldn't make it anyway. There was no point shooting him. Slower death was what he deserved.

Jane looked into Grorag's tired eyes, then turned around as well, falling behind Saren.

Grorag stood up. He looked at the human, passing. His plan failed. And it was all because of this little bitch here.

He moved. Faster than could be expected, he stepped to Jane's back and raised his arm, a dagger lighting up in his right hand. But just when he was a foot away, Jane turned around, her senses sharp as a knife.

With a quick biotic push she sent him flying over the edge of the rooftop. All they heard was the batarian's scream in the distance, fading away.

Saren looked back at her, just witnessing the batarian falling. He almost laughed out, but he kept it together. That fool somehow thought he was going to hurt this beast of a woman.

"Come" he said casually, turning to the shuttle and making his way to it to get in.

She turned and got in the shuttle as well.

And she quickly forgot about the batarian too. But the Librarian… Who was that? Why did that someone order the batarians to do this?

She already wanted to get back to the Sovereign and talk this through with Saren.

Saren… She looked at him as he drove the shuttle, visibly going through the same thoughts as she did. She was still under the influence of that little fight in the warehouse, she was still on a high, moving around in her seat. It seems their synergy was stronger than she thought.


	10. Horizon

The dim lights of the lounge engulfed the turian in a strange gloom as he sat on the couch with his legs across the pillows. His expression was dark, looking at the datapad in his hand, trying to decipher the information they got from the White Hand. The silence was thick in the room, only Saren's annoyed growls breaking it from time to time.

He sent the info already to his agents back at the Citadel, but simply couldn't leave it at that. He needed to know, he needed to try to find out as much as possible on his own, because he couldn't bare the thought of doing nothing about it. But the more he tried to analyze the data and find anything of value regarding who this Librarian was, the more helpless his situation became.

There was nothing here. Not a single clue. Whoever transmitted these messages, was an expert in hiding information on their whereabouts.

He lost track of time very soon, and only looked up when some noise hit his ears from the other end of the lounge. He didn't even look up as Jane entered the room, freshly showered, her sweet cherry scent already twisting his nose plates. That damned woman smelled so good, it instantly derailed him from his datamining. But his resolve was stronger, so he didn't make the smallest move. He fell right back into concentration.

She didn't say a word to him, just proceeded to get some snacks quietly. When behind the bar, she turned her eyes to Saren, to get a good look at him. He was completely immersed in whatever he was doing, which no doubt was the latest findings regarding the bio weapon. The air was almost cold around him, still, like he was going to explode any minute. She forgot about the snacks and instead started preparing kahve. He didn't even look at her the whole time, buried deep in his analysis.

When the coffee was done, she rounded the bar and stepped to him, silently and slowly, watching if his anger that he clearly held in was going to crush her or not. But when she was close, nothing happened… so she sat down next to him.

Saren saw a cup of steaming coffee float into his eyesight, blocking his vision of the datapad in front of him. The smell was incredible, and he instantly looked to the right to find Jane sitting close next to him on the couch, offering the coffee to him.

"This might help." was all she said quietly with a small smile on her face. He took the mug from her, and watched her lean over his datapad, slowly taking it from his hand, and checking out the data for herself. She was so bold, coming here to him, taking away his stuff and settling down next to him like this was her couch. As if she's been here with him for years now. She wasn't afraid to push a mug in his hand, and let her shoulder brush to his as she leaned back to read the datapad.

She seemed comfortable with him around. It was a very alien feeling for him. He almost forgot his anger about the data.

"Did you find anything?" she asked.

"No" he growled, barely opening his mouth "I've no idea where these messages came from, and my agents haven't replied yet. It's nothing here apart from the instructions… "

She looked up at the ceiling, thinking: "Have you heard about this Librarian before?"

"No" he shook his head "And neither did Aria, nor the shadow broker."

"The shadow broker?" she asked, sitting up on her legs "You know the shadow broker?"

"Of course not. Only a couple of his agents, and they are just as clueless as me."

She sighed "That's bad. It can be anyone then."

"That's not what bothers me the most" Saren said, taking back the datapad, running his finger down the instructions "This whole thing is too much. Someone wants a bio weapon here, sure, nothing we haven't seen before. But look at this.. Whoever struck a deal with the batarians, had specific instructions for everything. This Librarian gave the batarians the egg, the contact and info for Cohen. This is..."

"...Too many steps." Jane finished his sentence, and they looked at each other. Saren downed his coffee. She continued: "If this Librarian wanted to order a bio weapon, he could've just done it. Why need the batarians?"

His voice rumbled as he stood up "Because this Librarian, whoever that is, wants to hide his trail. The more steps, the harder to follow up if anyone starts to snoop around. The Librarian's making sure that whatever he's up to, it cannot be traced back directly to him. Or his boss..." he said as he stepped back, putting down the coffee mug on the bar and heading to the lounge door. She was looking at his back as he was leaving, calling out just as his talon touched the console on the wall.

"Saren?"

The turian stopped. He turned back slightly to face Jane, who stepped up from the couch and looked at him from across the room. "Yeah?" he growled, deep down frustrated, impatient.

"What's wrong?" she asked simply, her eyes focusing on his. Seeing through him.

He hesitated for a second, just staring into those blue eyes of hers. But eventually, on that deep baritone voice of his, he replied. "This is not normal, none of this is. This is more serious than a simple bio weapon."

And with that, he left. Jane stayed there, looking at the place the turian was standing a second ago, trying to decipher what he just said. Was he… worried? He didn't seem to be the type who would worry about anything of this measure, to her, he was more like someone who casually saves the world on a regular Saturday, without giving it much thought.

But it seems he had feelings, after all.

She smiled.

* * *

The next morning was, just like the others, quiet on the Sovereign.

They were still orbiting Omega, having no current destination. Jane was still sleeping in her room when Saren was already up, training in the gym which was a daily routine for him. As he lifted the weights one after each other, his mind was racing, not stopping since yesterday.

He had no idea who this Librarian was, but he was damn sure something was going on here, and it wasn't just a simple toxic based bio weapon. His hunch never betrayed him, that was how he managed to save so many missions and disastrous situations in the past. And that instinct was very much sending alarms to him now. And a bio weapon nonetheless… he hated them with all his heart.

But his mind must've started playing tricks on him, because suddenly he remembered Jane and their fight with the batarians, which brought up completely opposite feelings in him. She enjoyed the fight so much… he could hear her heartbeat, and just the memory of it pumped him up.

It was thrilling to see someone not shy away from combat, and see it for what it is: art, life, beating the hell out of your opponent. Most of the soldiers he met so far could fight, sure, but almost everyone was going for the peaceful alternative and politics whenever they had the chance. People were always boasting about how good they were in combat and warfare, but always avoided it at the end of the day.

Even from the spectres, not a lot of them took their pride in combat itself, but rather politics, espionage, or needless tactics. No one really wanted to admit that sometimes all that was needed was a good ass kicking and blowing shit up. But Jane… that woman was blooming when she was throwing the batarians through the ceiling. She understood this language, and they worked surprisingly well together. He needed to build on this, because this was a grand opportunity for them to become a two-person killing squad.

He was just surprised this was coming from a human woman.

The universe was playing tricks on him.

And of course this was the moment the door slid open, and Jane marched in wearing training gear. She stopped in the middle of the room and sank into a hip:

"Good morning!" she chirped "I thought I'd find you here."

"I'm here every morning." he said, putting down the weights "Who would have guessed?"

She shook her head at his sarcasm and stepped to him: "Whoever this Librarian is, we need to prepare. God knows what is coming for us, we need to be ready for anything."

"On that we agree" he replied, standing up. They met in the middle of the room, facing each other. "Let's go."

This was how their training started. They weren't sparring this time, but rather they systematically showed each other their moves and tried to counteract them to perfect them. They spent long hours digging deep into the details of each other's fighting styles, combos and habits, trying to find holes in their tactics and way of fighting. Trying to prepare for different scenarios and creating tactics to negate adverse situations.

By the end of it, they developed tactics for almost any scenario, and were prepared with disaster plans for things they can't really fight or negate. It left Saren a bit calmer regarding the unknown they were getting into, knowing that from a combat perspective they've done everything they could.

"Not bad" he said as they both got up, sighing from the exercise that sent them both to the ground "I'm starting to think humanity might not be entirely hopeless.."

She chuckled: "Liar. You hate us just as much as you did before. Your only luck is that I don't give a fuck."

"My luck indeed" he nodded playfully and started cleaning up the mess they left the training room in, he put away the weights and turned back all the furniture to where they belonged. It seems Jane loved flying everything with biotics, and that was good to know. Once he finished she was already gone, possibly to take a shower to cool down.

And as soon as she left, he was alone with his thoughts again.

Combat training is fine, and it is key for them to be in synergy as much as possible, but then again, he had no idea what was going to happen regarding this bio weapon. He had seen too many things go wrong to be calm about this. Bio-warfare was by far the ugliest, most disgusting part of any war, and it was the only part about it he truly hated.

* * *

The door closed behind Jane, who immediately started tossing her training gear all over the floor once in her room, and made her way to the bathroom. Once she was rid of everything and the water was flowing, she stepped into the shower and let herself soak under the water. She thought about how nervous Saren seemed still, just like yesterday, but when they started training it seemed he loosened up a bit.

All her muscles were sore from the session they just had, but she didn't mind the slightest. It was all very useful, and even entertaining. He was a true expert when it came to combat, but he also treated her as an expert. Everything he told or showed her had a certain finesse to it, it was exhilarating to watch. And she showed him her favourite throws, all of her biotic favourites - that could be performed without wrecking the ship of course.

She remembered people back at the Alliance stopping her, telling her that such displays were unnecessary and dangerous, that no matter the circumstances, biotics are dangerous and should only be used with caution. But Saren told her that her favourite, showy tactics were great to confuse enemies, to wreak havoc as they were great surprise elements, playing to shock value… which was the exact reason she loved them so much.

He understood her… even after such little time spent together… so the hours went by fast. But now she got out of the shower and headed to her desk to check the time. It was the afternoon already… they just spent most of their day together, and did not even realize it.

But all her thoughts were interrupted, as she heard Ilsa's voice coming through the comms:

[Warning: Unidentified vessel incoming. Cruiser on intercept trajectory.]

"What?" she breathed, in the middle of putting a top on, making it all wet as she hastily pulled it over her head and her wet hair.

[Shields 100%. Vessel identification failure, not matching any known database.]

She gave up on having time to put pants on, and just left her room the way she was and flew into the elevator, pressing the cockpit button like a maniac. Really? A ship is attacking them now, while orbiting Omega? But that was all the thoughts she had time for as the elevator doors opened and she jumped into the cockpit, running to the main control panel as fast as she could.

"Get out of there!" she heard from behind her back, and as she turned, she saw Saren storm in, pushing her out of the way and sitting down into the chair, immediately manning all the main controls.

"What the fuck?" she cursed, trying to find info about the trajectory on the many screens.

"We're being attacked" he growled "Release autopilot, switch to manual mode!"

[Manual mode toggled. Incoming missile. Impact in..]

The ship shook, sending Jane to the ground.

[Shields 78%]

"Fuck!" Saren cursed, grabbing the wheel. "Are there any more incoming?"

[Three more missiles released.]

"Ok, let's do this..." said the turian, and pulled the wheel as far back as he could while giving gas, and the ship's nose turned up, just pushing away from the missiles that showed as missed on the radar. He released a lock and moved to the left, bringing the ship along, rounding in space to try and provide time for the analytics to run properly. "Jane, the main gun!" he shouted, and pushed the wheel back down again.

She turned around, looked at the elevator and immediately made her way to it. She rode it down to the bowels of the ship and exited to the labyrinth-like deck, turning right then left and entered a small room that was the battery. It was extremely useful to know the layout… good thing she learned it before they even left for the relay on their first run. She hopped into the chair there and put on the headpiece, powered the system up and exhaled.

"I'm ready" she spoke to the comms, and heard Saren's soothing reply from it:

[Then show me.]

She smiled, then fired up the targeting system, ran the algorithms and started controlling the gun like it was a pistol in her hands. The Sovereign turned and leapt in the air as Saren maneuvered it through space, evading missiles, turning so Jane could shoot them right out, without a single mistake.

[Damn right!] She heard through the comms and laughed as the enemy missiles fell prey to her shots, allowing them to get further and further away from the other ship.

It wasn't long before they left behind that unknown cruiser, and Saren could switch to FTL, effectively removing them from danger. He punched in random coordinates, without giving it much thought in the heat of the moment. They jumped completely out of the system, and into the neighbouring one.

"Ilsa, take over and keep all monitoring systems alive. Also run a detailed analysis. I want the identification number of that ship." he said to the AI, who chirped in reply, switching back the ship to be under her control again. Saren got up from the chair and turned to go and get Jane, but she was already there, just exiting the elevator. The looked at each other from the far sides of the cockpit, suddenly both of them stopping in their tracks.

"You had pilot training?" Jane asked, closing the distance between them, sheer amazement in her eyes. This was getting a bit too much now, was there anything that Saren couldn't do? But he almost stepped back a bit.

Her scent was intoxicating, and his sensitive nose was now filled with a dream of cherries.

"Back in the military, yes." he answered after a second of hesitation, with his mandibles almost glued to his face. "Great shots..." he growled, nodding at her very officially.

They were both really pumped.

None of them knew what that ship was, the attack happened very fast, and the adrenalin was still kicking them in the face. As they stood there and just spent a moment to catch their breath, they slowly started to realize their situation.

Neither of them were dressed properly.

Jane was in just a top and some underwear, her hair falling on her collarbone, heavy, wet. Its colour was a lot darker than usually, now resembling a dark brown, rather than red. And between the intriguing sight of that strange wet hair, her cherry scent and her hourglass figure Saren just couldn't register what to look at. She was so ruffled, but looking magnificent at the same time. Her skin looked smooth as silk, her icy blue almond shaped eyes gleamed like jewels in the dark. And she didn't care: it was apparent that she didn't even think about being half naked, she was busy with the thrill of the space battle, and looking deep into his eyes.

That is until she realized how different he looked. He had only a training short on, and all of his silverish, grey plates were visible, guarding some amazingly toned muscles. As his chest rose and fell, she saw drops of water everywhere on him, drawing attention to the hundreds of battle scars on his body. And his eyes were glued on her, his mandibles were twitching in the smallest way possible. He was raw power solidified.

She cleared her throat, coming back to reality.

"Who was attacking?" she asked. He exhaled a ragged breath, slightly turning away as means to concentrate on the situation at hand.

"It was an unknown ship, Ilsa is running the diagnostics now."

"Well" she turned as well "Let me know if she'll have something." and with that she left the cockpit, leaving Saren alone.

The turian turned to where the elevator doors closed, his thoughts racing in his head. They were just attacked, but he simply couldn't focus on it. But he needed to get back to it. So he turned around and walked back to the chair to analyze what Ilsa has been doing.

* * *

Hours passed since the incident.

Ilsa couldn't identify the ship that was attacking them, but it seemed the danger was gone. They saved all the data, in case they run into this entity once again. They however never went back to the Sahrabarik. Saren decided to jump out of FTL between two systems, to avoid being followed. This is how they ended up in the middle of nothing, just floating in the emptiness.

And Jane couldn't find Saren. She had dinner, he was not there. She had coffee, and went through all the details about their findings on the bio weapon so far, and he was not there. She went down to engineering, and the hangars, but he was nowhere. They needed to go. Even if they knew nothing of this Librarian, even if they were attacked, they needed to do something, and she wanted to tell him that. She eventually got bored waiting for him to show up.

"Ilsa, is Saren in his quarters?" she asked, looking up at the ceiling into the comms.

[No.] came the answer from the AI.

"Ah, then where is he?" she asked, not so much from the AI, but rather thinking out loudly.

[He is outside.]

She looked up at the comms again, confused. "Excuse me, _outside_?"

How could he be outside? What the hell?

[He is outside on the shell.]

"Thanks" she sighed, realizing she won't get more info out of Ilsa, and knowing they'll never start without Saren, she decided to see whatever he was up to on the outside shell of the ship.

She went and grabbed her armor, put it on along with her helmet, and stepped into the decontamination zone of the shutters near the cockpit. They were training and being attacked today, and now she's preparing to space walk? What a long day…

The pressure equalizer beeped and she felt her insides leap as vacuum took over the atmosphere around her. She turned on the suction in her boots to keep her rooted to the floor, and as the doors swooshed open, she walked to the edge of the ledge in the shutter. She looked down, then up, not seeing any trace of Saren. She turned suction off and slowly floated off the floor, grabbed onto the metal casing of the shutter, and leapt into space.

A smile instantly took over her as her horizon turned, and her feet landed on the shell of the Sovereign, the suction keeping her there, not letting her disappear into the emptiness of space. She slowly took a step, then another, free of the weight of gravity, her heart beating faster by the second.

It was like she was walking on stars. The optical camouflage of the Sovereign reflected everything to the smallest detail, and as she looked down at her foot, all she saw was the stars and herself. She took her steps further and further up the nose of the ship, looking at how the stars moved behind her, looking like she was in the middle of the everything and nothing at the same time. She couldn't express the feeling of freedom that took over her.

This ship was a masterpiece.

"It's breathtaking, isn't it?" she heard from her comms in her ear, and looked up. There was Saren, sitting right on top of the ship, like he was between worlds of stars.

"I" she sighed "This is eerie..." she blurted out breathlessly, a tiny sound of laughter in her voice. She took another step, faster, eventually almost skipping to Saren, clinging onto this newfound freedom she discovered. In seconds her laughter rang out in the comms, and she arrived next to the turian, sitting down.

"I love this place already."

"It's just the top of the ship" Saren corrected "You love what _surrounds_ it."

If they were inside, not wearing helmets, he would've seen her scolding expression. But she didn't say anything to that, just looked above her head, drinking the sight in. They didn't talk for a long minute, just letting the silence take over as they were both deep in their own minds. Two spectres, sitting on the edge of nothing.

Jane eventually spoke: "I know you're stressed about the bio weapon. And if you think your previous answer satisfied me, you're wrong."

She was right. He gave her no real answer yesterday, just some hush hush. But the real answer was not for her to know.

"Had some bad experiences with bio weapons before." he let on, vaguely, but implying something secretive to her. "I'm careful about them ever since."

She looked at the mirror at her feet. This was him telling her that whatever had happened to him, was something that he didn't wish to talk about. She didn't need to see his face to know this hurt him. This case was bringing memories back up in him, memories he undoubtedly pushed as deep as he possibly could.

He was usually cold, calculated, but his tone was different now. Warm. Sad.

She didn't want to stir him anymore, it seemed cruel.

"This view is beautiful..." she eventually said, deterring the conversation.

It worked. The turian turned to her, his head nodding strangely, as if he just had an idea.

"You like it?" he asked, his voice now a lot more alive.

"I do."

"Well, wait until you see this." he said "Ilsa, let us turn back."

[Of course.] came from the comms in both their earpieces, and the ship slowly started turning, the horizon moved again, and the stars they were looking at until now disappeared, moved out of their frame.

And in their wake, new ones came around, with lights of blue, purple, and a red, slowly creeping in. Jane's breath was taken away as they turned to face the nebula, and where darkness lay before, came a searing light of orange, the dust of the universe painting the stars.

The ship's shell mirrored the nebula, bathing them in stars and light.

She couldn't say a word.

The universe was now under her feet, her hands, colours appeared from everywhere, the distant horizon upside down, making her feel like she was floating. Floating in this space, this vast emptiness. No words could describe how badly she wanted to see this universe, and how it made her feel to see it finally. Like there was no end to it. Like she was a part of it finally.

Saren leaned back, proud.

He could feel her pure awe, how she looked at this world with honest, uncorrupted eyes. A simple view he saw hundreds of times, she valued like it was gone in a moment. He remembered their fights, their training, how well she did and how eager she was to live and fight; how she looked at him, with those piercing eyes when they first met.

He never had a partner as a spectre before her.

Because he was waiting for her. This strong, rare, weird creature. She deserved to see this view.

"This is why I left the Alliance..." she breathed, ending his uncontrolled chain of thought. "If I would've climbed out onto the ship like this, they would've tossed me out of the airlock, because of a million shitty regulations. You have a freedom I never had. I've never seen anything like this before..."

His mandibles moved, a sly smile hidden in his helmet. So much experience, so little freedom. This was the military.

"Come on. I'm sure that Earth you're from has beautiful views like this as well."

She shrugged. "Dunno. Never really had the chance to look."

His smile disappeared.

"I grew up on the streets. In the dirt. Not many nice views there." her voice was cold now, no trace of that wonder from a minute ago. Just the freezing reality of disappointment in her tone.

"I know." he answered instinctively, not realizing what he had just given away.

"Wait..." she breathed, turning to him. "You're..."

"Orphan? Yes." he admitted with a voice so cold, it felt like it froze her blood. "It's written all over my face, or isn't it?"

She was shocked.

Bareface. It had a different meaning to her now, and that meaning she knew will never going to be changed again.

They looked at each other, not a single word exchanged as they sat there, in the light of the nebula, now the only darkness lingering was within their minds. Thousands of thoughts, never expressed into words as they shared this silence.

Whatever dark impulse brought them together… they had no idea. But the more time passed, the more of themselves they recognized in each other.

Long minutes passed, before Jane spoke: "Thanks for showing me this view."

"I didn't do anything. You climbed out here on your own."


	11. Fighting boredom

**Hi!**  
 **Sorry for the bit of hiatus, but I am back now and am so happy to have time to write again :) Hope you'll like this chapter, and let me know! :)**

* * *

They decided to go back to the Citadel on that night.

There was no lead for them to go on and find this Librarian for now, so they decided to go back, see if they can find anything with the help of the Council, and some other channels. Not even bad for a short break from chasing criminals. After their conversation on the shell of the Sovereign, not much has changed, but it seemed their interactions became even smoother. They never spoke about the topic again, neither of them wanted to, and it was fine. They spent their days on the road with full day trainings, fine tuning their tactics and collaboration.

It was a great two days of silence, endless training and physical exhaustion.

Saren thought humans were puny, but Jane proved his assumption wrong. She was working just as hard as him, without stopping or letting her concentration slide. She was sketching new moves, new tactics, showing it to him so they could work them out.

They were buried in work, and none of them minded.

But when they arrived back on the Citadel and their ship docked, they were both exhausted.

"We'll see the Council first, get it over with." Saren said as he watched Ilsa pull up to dock 423 and stopping the went and waited for the docking tube to connect by entering decontamination. Once completed and Saren made sure everything was ready to go, the shutter doors opened up and released them to the world.

"No way!" Jane said, running out of the ship, right to the turian standing near the edge of the dock, waiting for them with hands crossed in front of his chest. "You're on the Citadel again?"

"I never left." replied Nihlus with a polite nod, his mandibles moved into a smile as Jane approached him.

"Really?" she asked with a disappointed face "All this time you were sitting here on the station?"

"I wasn't sitting. Politics sometimes require time, you know." his smile remained, already looking at Saren who was coming up in the background. He wasn't hurrying to his dear friend Nihlus… he already saw where this was going.

"Just don't involve me in your boring ass politics, please" Jane stated, half joking, half serious.

"But only because we have our own boring ass politics to enjoy..." Saren said as he came up to them, stopping next to Jane. He clearly was just as bored with politics as Jane was.

Nihlus' smile widened: "Great, now I have two Sarens complaining about everything."

Jane and Saren looked at each other at the comparison.

She was the first to comment: "I'm not _that_ ugly..."

Nihlus couldn't keep his laughter in as Saren rolled his eyes, and passed them. Once he could breathe again, he offered his arm to Jane, who took it, and they both fell behind Saren, following him to the elevator.

"You're back quite soon..." Nihlus noted, leaning closer to her.

"Yeah..." she sighed "We didn't really have a choice. Trail went cold."

"Sorry to hear that" the spectre replied "What are you after?"

"It's a long story..." she said "Let it be enough that it is a bio weapon of the Terminus systems..."

The turbolift door swooshed open and Saren stepped in, turning right back to face them. The two also entered the elevator, Nihlus with a face of someone who's seen a ghost. The two turians shared a silent glance before the door closed. It was clear that Nihlus was aware of whatever happened to Saren, his face told the story. He started to look tense.

Saren on the other hand dismissed his reaction. He pressed the button on the console and the three of them rode the elevator in silence. They exited at C-sec HQ and while Saren and Jane turned towards the exit, Nihlus was clearly heading for the offices:

"I'll be free later today evening" Nihlus said, politely nodding to Jane as a goodbye "Let's have a meal, to catch up."

"Sure!" she smiled, accepting and returning his gesture. He then turned and left, and Jane caught up to Saren who was already approaching the other elevator.

* * *

Once they talked to the Council, Jane and Saren separated. He went to check on the agents and their research. But everything was futile.

The Council didn't give a damn about the reason for their halted progress, all they could repeat was that they needed this solved as soon as possible. They completely ignored the real threat: the possible organization behind the request for the bioweapon. They thought this is just the same as the other Terminus threats they faced before, and someone just needed to be silenced, but Saren knew that this was a bit more. He just didn't know yet how, and that gave the Council a reason to dismiss the threat. And he couldn't blame them… they really didn't have a lot to go on.

And the agents… couldn't find anything. Every message they tried to track led nowhere. All of those were sent through channels impossible to follow or enter, not knowing how many times the data was repackaged and altered to mask the origin of it.

It infuriated Saren, his patience completely ran out. He decided to leave it all alone, and try to relax for a night, because hammering this topic clearly wasn't helping his mind.

He went to his apartment to get changed, then took a shuttle to that new place that recently opened on the Wards. It was a large pub with multiple rooms and bars, all having different selections of alcohol and other beverages. At first it seemed a multicultural space, but he quickly realized the amount of turian, and above all, turian women flooding the place. When he sat down at one of the inner bars, he realized he might want to find some fun to do tonight.

* * *

"You look great tonight" Nihlus complimented Jane as he stood up to greet her. She was wearing a casual but tight fitting simple black dress, perfectly fitting the vibe of the restaurant.

"So do you" she smiled back at him as she sat down, looking around the place. It seems her whole demeanor changed suddenly. "This is a fancy restaurant, Nihlus. Why the effort if I may ask?"

He casually waved to the waiter while giving his answer: "I was your mentor, Jane, and you're the first human spectre - of course it is a fancy restaurant. I don't want to catch up in a steamy pub."

She laughed a bit, on her usual husky, sweet voice.

"You don't like fancy places?" he asked, a sly smirk on his face.

"Why would you think that?" she asked back, genuinely surprised of the question.

"A killing machine like you who is always so casual… I expected you to hate this place."

She laughed, but this time she laughed at him, not with him.

"Come on Nihlus, enjoying combat doesn't mean I don't like fancy food, drinks and restaurants. At least I get to wear this beauty" she said, proudly motioning to her dress.

He remembered her jeans and her crop top as she went to take Saren's hand before they left together not long ago. Her impatient, explosive need for combat when he worked with her a couple months ago, and the more he remembered, the more this made sense. She wasn't just a military genius, she was a woman. He was honestly worried if he brought Jane to a place where she won't feel comfortable, because she was so casual before, but this worry was gone now, as he saw how proudly she is sinking into the role of a woman in a fancy dress.

No wonder she was a spectre.

"...and a Jameson, please." she said to the waiter who came to take her order.

Once the waiter was gone, he asked her about the bio weapon, and she started telling the whole story. She was so in it, telling the tale of Dr. Cohen and the Bloodhound, the gang and this mysterious Librarian they were now after.

"... But now here we are." she finished the story as their food came and they started eating "On the Citadel, waiting for a lead to show up, and I must say, I wish Saren finds something really soon, because if I have to stay on this station for long..."

"You want to go back?" he asked, visibly surprised.

"Of course!" she nodded, devouring her salmon "All I did today was meet the Council, and now you. But don't get me wrong" she explained "I enjoy this, but… I'm too used to being on the field."

No surprise here. She was nagging him to take more interesting missions when she was under his wings. But Nihlus still found it hard to believe that a young human woman would rather spend her time on Saren's ship working, than remain a part of society.

He reasoned with her: "You're not on the field 24/7 there either. What is the difference?"

"Sure, we're not blowing shit up every hour, but we do train and work, investigate." she looked at her food, as if she only realized now, how much they do. "Saren doesn't waste time…"

Nihlus put his drink down on the table and looked right into her eyes. He was serious now, leaving behind his friendly banter and pushing the conversation further. After all, there was a reason why he invited Jane tonight.

"What do you think of him?"

She looked back at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I want to know. He's not an easy person to work with."

He finished the last bite of her food and put down her fork.

What _did_ she think of Saren?

"He's a professional killer." she started, deep in thought, letting the words just flow "He's intelligent, hard working, and cold. Very logical. Attracts danger, just like I do."

But the rest of her thoughts never left her lips. They remained in her mind, unsaid.

He never stopped. Not for a second.

But he also didn't scold her for what she was. If anything, he wanted to see her let loose. He was primal, passionate, determined. He seemed and acted cold a lot, but inside, she knew there was a fire.

Nihlus was watching her and her blue eyes, their focus slowly going away, as if she entered a completely different world. She said one last thing:

"I wish we were sailing out again already." She looked up, back at Nihlus, and as she was again focused on reality, she sent a smile towards him. She couldn't tell him everything… there was no way he would understand. Not that weird connection they had. "That's it." she finished.

Nihlus leaned back, exhaling slowly as he realized he's not gonna get more out of her. But that look in her eye gave a bit more away: that lingering, secretive tone in her voice said to him that there was a lot more behind this than Jane let on. He was wondering what went on in her mind… what Saren did, or said that left her in such deep silence.

* * *

The next morning Jane woke up in her apartment, and left for the spectre office located on the Embassies. She had a great time with Nihlus last night, ending the dinner with a couple solid drinks and talks, but she retired early. She needed her strength for their training today, which was discussed with Saren way in advance. The spectre office had a great training room and shooting ground they wanted to test out, as neither of them had used these rooms for combat training in pairs. When she entered the office and went to change into her training gear, she was smiling, thinking about last night.

Nihlus wanted to know how their collaboration was going so badly, he invited her to dinner. That was so typical of Nihlus, she couldn't hold her smile down. She was sure he was going to play the same card with Saren soon… so predictable. But she didn't mind - Nihlus wasn't a bad guy, she knew this was just him showing he cared.

She warmed up, tested the shooting ground with some spectre stock heavy pistols, then started going through the archive in her boredom as she waited for Saren. From what she gathered, he wasn't the type who would be late from anywhere…

"Oh, you're still here… Good." came from behind her back suddenly. She let go of the console and looked behind her to see Saren walk into the office.

"Where have you been?" she asked, more concerned than frustrated.

"I was held back. Let's make a start." he said coldly and passed her on his way to the changing room.

As he passed, a scent caught her nose.

She turned around, not recognizing this strange, sweet scent he carried. Very very faint, but it was there. It was… a woman's scent?

* * *

Nihlus entered the spectre offices, his attention all on his omni tool, going through his business emails, navigating the doors by sheer force of habit, not even looking up. He reached the main computer, logged in and put his tool away. That was when he saw something move from the corner of his eye, and looked to the right, directly through the window of the training room of the office.

In there were two spectres, fighting away, the sounds of their sparring muted by the thick glass and wall, showing him only the sight, but he still felt like he heard them deep in his mind.

It was Saren and Jane, viciously attacking each other.

They were in a bubble, in their own little universe as they made their moves, each calculated to the last inch, resembling a routine rather than spontaneous fighting. Nihlus felt like he could not be seen or heard by them, even if there wasn't a wall between them. They moved and turned around each other, flowing naturally, their expressions focused, but filled with joy, laughter.

He had never seen either of them like this before.

This grounded, this free. He smiled, then decided to come back later.

He turned away, thinking he made a great decision when he proposed that these two should partner.

* * *

When they were done with the training, Saren left just as quickly as he came, but he didn't have to let Jane know where he went for her to know. To the agents of course, she thought as she changed and prepared to leave herself. She also wanted to go and see how the investigation went, but she had a meeting with Captain Anderson to see if he knew anything about this Librarian.

But while leaving, she still kept thinking about the training.

They had a great session once again, but one thought she couldn't let go. That scent she felt when he appeared… it was of another woman, she knew. She wasn't sure why it weirded her out so much. Saren was an excellent one night catch, and of course he liked ladies, just like any other turian. Maybe she needed to relax too…

But only after business.

She appeared at the Flux just as agreed, and she didn't have to wait a lot for Anderson. He showed up just on time and took his place across the table.

"Shepard" he greeted with a solid smile on his usually serious face "Good to see you." He sat down and she smiled back at him.

"Good to see you too, Captain."

"So, what brought you to meet an old man like me?" he asked, half joking.

"I need information for a stuck investigation" she started "Have you ever heard of anyone dubbed the _Librarian_?"

He looked at his coffee as he received it, thinking away.

"Doesn't ring a bell." he eventually replied "Who would that be exactly?"

"We're not sure. We're looking for the customer for a toxin-based bio weapon in the Terminus systems and this name came up, but no one has ever heard this title. It's not in the spectre databanks, and the Council doesn't know about it either, along with the underworld of the Terminus systems."

He shook his head.

"Sorry, pup, whoever this is never crossed my path in the Alliance." he replied.

She sighed, like she lost hope. Whoever this Librarian was, was either guarding their identity really well, or they were a new entity on the market.

"Look, I don't want to be rude, but" Anderson started "Is this one of Saren's shenanigans?"

She looked up, frustrated.

"No…" she exhaled "I'm not sure how many times are we going to discuss this..."

He leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, shaking his head. The anger was palpable in his voice. "You should not be partnering with that monster. He's violent and dangerous."

"Tell me something I don't know..." she replied, stern.

"Then why are you with him, Shepard? This turian is the worst of them all!"

But was he? Really?

Sure he was violent, dark and maybe even evil, but how could he be worse than everyone else?

She retaliated: "You know that is not ture, Captain. There are a lot worse things out there, than Saren."

"Sure, but of all the spectres, why did you choose him? The only person who will hurt you? Who hates humans?"

"You mean the only person who fucked you over?" she asked, now angry.

This story was so old.

Captain Anderson was supposed to be the first ever human spectre, until Saren came and made sure he never got the job. She knew this story well, she's known Anderson for years now.

The Captain's expression distorted from angry to bitter in a second.

"Look" she leaned back "I know as well as everyone else that he's not a fluffy bunny. But this is my shot, and I am not letting this go."

They looked into each other's eyes, and the look on Anderson's face softened, eventually turning into a small, bittersweet smile.

"You want to save the world, Jane..." he said softly "But he will destroy it along the way."

Her face turned sad.

"I'm sorry, but it seems like you don't understand. I am well aware who he is. That is why I partnered with him." she said as she stood up "Thanks for the information."

And she left, leaving the Captain there, who raised his hand to his temple.

"Oh, pup..." he sighed, worried. But she was right. She knew what she was doing, and he couldn't stop her, not ever. It has always been this way with her.

* * *

Saren sat down at the table and looked at Nihlus who was waiting for him here.

They were in a club.

Again.

"I'm starting to think you live in clubs, you know." Saren said to him without even greeting his friend, already waving to the waiter to come over and take his order. "Is this all you do under the pretense of politics, Nihlus? Drinking away at clubs and striptease bars?"

Nihlus coughed: "You say that like you're a saint."

"I'm no saint, but you sure have a problem!" he replied, a sly smile curling up on his face. He gave his order to the waiter who left "So what do you want with me?"

Nihlus shifted in his seat, confidently looking at Saren. "I wanted to talk. You know, like normal people do sometimes."

Saren was emanating darkness, his expression bored and angry at the same time as he was coming up with his response to Nihlus' offer for a talk. He hated purposeless meetups like this, but with the investigation halted, he really didn't have anything to do.

Boredom was his greatest enemy, it seemed.

"Like I have any other choice..." he eventually blurted out "This investigation is going nowhere. This wait is killing me."

"Well..." Nihlus smiled "It's a perfect time for some ladies, then!"

Saren laughed a tiny bit in that dark way he always did, and took his drink from the waitress.

"Already done" he replied, thinking of last night. He encountered a random turian woman, who also seemed to be bored.

Nihlus looked at his drink, idly moving it around: "And you still look like shit..."

He had nothing to say to that.

"... Maybe it was the wrong girl." Nihlus finished.

Saren looked up, a spark of confusion in his blue eyes as he froze for a second. What the fuck was Nihlus on about again?

"What the hell are you talking about…." he voiced his question.

Nihlus shifted again in his seat, finishing his drink in one go, and looking right into Saren's eyes with a suggestive look. "I saw you and Shepard this morning in the offices. You didn't seem to be bored then."

Saren leaned back, relaxed. He thought Nihlus was going to suggest something crazy, like going on a hunt for a hundred women or something, which was not far from him at all. But the thought of Jane instead brought ease to his mind.

"It's hard to be bored next to a killing machine." he replied.

Nihlus decided to just go for it. It seemed Saren was so bored, he was in the mood to share some information. This was really rare, and he wanted to use it well.

"So, how does she fare?"

"She almost killed me on our first mission." was all Saren said. That brought out a loud laugh from his friend, who was thoroughly entertained already.

"And she still lives?" he asked back.

"For now..." said Saren, his eyes darting away from Nihlus, and into the distance. "Maybe there is one human in this galaxy who is not completely braindead."

Nihlus never thought he was going to live till this day. Saren not wanting to immediately kill a human after working with them? This was a first. Even though it was his doing that the two were now partners, he never expected Saren to say something like this out loud.

"I told you" Nihlus replied "She's a catch."

A catch.

She was a lot more than that. But Nihlus will never know, he will never understand, what he had done. How he introduced him to the only partner he could take. How weird it felt to not feel alone, to not be bored anymore. How dull everyone else felt, compared to her.

Saren always used people as tools. Like that turian girl he fucked last night.

But Jane…

As he looked into the distance, buried in his own thoughts, he thought she saw her for a second. But it was only a girl with fiery red hair, in the other end of the club.

Then he realized, it wasn't another woman. It was Jane.

"What?" Nihlus asked as he saw Saren's eyebrows move up in surprise. He turned to look at what he saw.

It was Jane, sitting at the bar in jeans, with a whiskey in her hand. She wasn't alone.

Some human guy was standing above her, close, clearly trying to seduce her. The man moved in, close to her face, whispering something into her ear. She laughed, playfully slamming the guy in the shoulder with a hand, then taking another sip from her drink.

"Oh my..." Nihlus breathed, turning back to watch Saren's reaction.

His face was tense. His mandibles twiched and glued to his jaw, his ice blue eyes started throwing sparks of death as he froze, like a statue. Not a word left his mouth as he imagined the man touching her… and suddenly he was so weirded out, it even surprised him.

He swallowed his nerves. He did not want to see this shit unfold. But when his eyes turned back to Nihlus, he saw his friend with a smile so big, it barely fit on his ugly face.

"What?"

"Looks like she's not as bored as you are, Saren..." the smile on Nihlus' face was unbearable.

"Like I care" said Saren, shaking off this weird feeling from him "She does whatever the fuck she wants."

A tiny, sarcastic laugh left Nihlus.

That was it. Saren stood up.

"I have better things to do" he said, irritated to death, and left the club, leaving Nihlus there.

The spectre didn't move, just stayed seated there, looking at Jane and her victim. Then remembered Saren's face. It's been a long time since he was this entertained.


	12. Trick of a mind

**Oh my... the universe just keeps doing everything it can to stop me from uploading on time. But here is again another chapter, a bit late :(**  
 **This one is a bit different, not sure what you'll think, but I hope you'll like it. Some major storyline upcoming in the next chapter yaaas I'm so excited! :D Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

Jane awoke with a feeling of uneasiness in her stomach.

Nothing was right, not the pose, not the bed, not her dreams. She sat up, clinging to the silk sheets, dragging them with her as she left the bed. She turned back once she stood, and looked at the man sleeping there. This place was not hers, it was the guy's apartment. She shrugged and looked at the clock.

She only slept an hour, it was just past midnight.

She took a shower, then picked up and put her clothes on. She sneaked out of the apartment, right into the heat of the Wards, now standing on the busy street alone, watching the nightlife of the station pass by. She waved a cab and sat in, humming a familiar melody while leaning into the seat in the back of the shuttle. It was a quiet, slow ride, that allowed her to hear her own thoughts.

She must have been getting older, because all of a sudden picking up guys wasn't as much fun anymore.. She thought she needed to relax… but she was still restless. All she did was was wondering what Saren was doing right now. Her cab went right to the C-Sec HQ.

She walked in, through the lounge and up the stairs, past the offices and through the back door. She rode the elevator up and went through the corridors, eventually arriving at the back offices, that gave home to the special team of agents who worked as an information hub for the spectres. They were the ones Saren sent the data back to, who helped them find out about Bloodhound.

She stepped in the door, finding only one turian sitting in front of many large screens, scrutinizing something, buried deep in work. He didn't notice her as she walked in and stopped next to him. Only then did the turian look up.

"Ah" he breathed, surprised "Spectre Shepard.. If you're looking for Mr. Arterius, he just went into the back there." he said, motioning with his head.

"Saren's here?" she asked, forgetting about the agent immediately. She stepped away without saying another word, starting for the backdoor. She went in, slowly, looking around as she never went this far. She was deeper and deeper by the minute as corridor followed after corridor, eventually leading to a small, reinforced door, that was now slid open.

She entered, and he was there. In the darkest corner of the room, standing in front of a safe.

"Saren?" she whispered. He closed the safe door and slowly turned around, a mysterious look in his eyes.

"Jane" he murmured "What are you doing here?"

She stepped closer, and he did the same.

"I was out tonight, but got bored real quick." she replied, looking up at him as he slowly reached her. His face was serious, he seemed absent-minded. "What are you doing here?" she asked back.

He took another look at the safe behind his back. "I had to hide it, it was dangerous."

She thought for a second, but realized there was only one thing he could have meant: "The toxin?"

His silence was his answer.

"Why hide it here?" she asked.

"Because no one would look for it here. Let's go." was all he said, and raised his hand behind her back. He turned her slowly, gently guiding her out, and she let him. "You've been drinking. You need rest."

She smiled at that. His arm remained at her back as they walked out. If he was concerned about such tiny things, that was just another confirmation that they had no progress on the case.

"I'll rest when I'm dead." she stated firmly "You found no clues?"

He sighed. Their steps echoed a bit as they walked the corridors, alone in the dim lights. "The White Hand wanted revenge on humanity, couldn't keep their batarian blood in check. But they didn't have enough resources on their own. They needed help. The Librarian reached out to them, promising them resources in exchange for doing what they were told. Ordering a bio weapon from Noveria, from the egg they received from the Librarian."

"It was a deal." she noted.

"Yes."

She looked up at him, stopping as they went "But is there anything on the Librarian? Can't the messages be tracked?"

He shook his head in silence, taking a moment to think everything through again.

They were chasing ghosts it felt like to him. He hated this. He wanted to see her fight, be alive, and not look at him with these tired eyes and their muted silver shine. He wanted to fight again, to go and do what they were both born to do.

The silence lingered between them, and they needed no words to understand each other. They wanted to go already, not be trapped here in this shithole of a station. That's why they were both here at the C-Sec HQ at such a weird hour.

"They cannot be have no traces, it looks like they just appeared." he eventually replied.

Jane wasn't a network expert, not even close, but she did generally understand how the galaxy wide network transmitted information through channels, marking the data when sorted and processed through the million servers of the extranet. Every data had its footprint.

"So the messages just popped up?" she asked "No root? No destination? Just out of the blue? Some network had to carry them, this should be visible..."

Saren didn't reply immediately. He remained still, his eyes fixed on Jane, who saw a spark being born in his mind, giving life to his eyes. His face lit up, his mandibles clicked, and it was apparent that he just realized something.

"Of course" he breathed "The network controls the data… Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Come!" he said suddenly, turning away from her and starting in the direction of the offices immediately. She fell behind him, curious to know what just hit him. He immediately started talking as his thoughts raced: "I was blind. We concentrated on finding the source of the data, tracing back the route of the messages… but there was nothing. Not a single IP even, that we could trace anywhere… but this is not normal. The network marks data with identifiers of its route in all cases, but this was missing here, and this is an anomaly. The data was in fact marked, but these traces must have been removed."

"What? How is that possible?"

He was almost running at this point with her behind his back.

"This is a different type of data… " he murmured, quickly, his thoughts faster than he could speak "It does not let the network control it, it makes its own way through the extranet. Then removes the traces, so it cannot be followed back. This is only possible if the data itself is intelligent. Its traces are not on the network… but have to be within the data code itself."

The backdoor opened, and they were back at the office, the agent sitting at his station looking at them marching in. Saren went right to the turian, and started showering him with the topic:

"Have you checked the message itself?"

"Of course. These are regular text messages, and those texts we already know. They refer to no location at all."

"Not that, you idiot!" Saren growled, almost pushing the guy out of his place. Jane was watching from behind, not really sure what was going on. "The message's code."

"We did of course. No traces of..."

"Don't look for traces, look for patterns" he said, fast, impatient "Put the messages together. This data is intelligent, it can hide its footprint on the network. We were looking at the wrong part of the message. It's source code should contain commands. Look for something that should not be there..."

Silence.

Jane only heard vicious tapping on the keyboard, and after a couple of minutes the agent leaned back suddenly, as if surprise hit him.

"This line… Spirits..." came the weak whisper from the turian.

"Run an analysis on this. Any repeating patterns, anything that..."

"There." said the guy, the analysis already done, and he pointed at various points of his screen. "Numbers. All of these variables have numbers assigned to them, that serve no purpose to the core of the code, this is extra information."

"Put them together" Saren commanded.

"570 79.7 96514.7981 213.78"

Jane, who was watching from behind now came closer. "This is a location code."

"And it's a local one, this is on the Citadel." added the agent.

Saren turned back and looked right at Jane. As soon as their eyes met, they knew this was it.

It was time for them to roll again.

"Let's go." he said in his low baritone, as he turned and stood in front of her, as if waiting for her to say yes. She looked up at his stature, that was now completely different. A spark that was missing for the last couple days had returned into his eyes, lighting up his features in a way that lured a smile onto her face. They were back on track. She nodded at him, and they were out the door, with the location coordinates on their omni tools. They practically flew into Saren's black shuttle that parked in the office garages, and they were off into the night.

* * *

"It will be somewhere around here" said Saren, looking at the shuttle computer as they flew over the Wards "These coordinates aren't really that specific."

"This is the lower Ward market..." Jane noticed, looking through the window on the side, scanning the area "I might be too drunk for this right now, but… isn't this a bit weird to you?"

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean..." she continued, looking back outside "Why would this Librarian send messages that have his location hard coded into them if he wants to stay hidden? Why hide it in there at all, if this data was so intelligent?"

Saren smiled a bit.

"You're not too drunk, I noticed that too. The info was probably put there on purpose."

"So this is a trap." she stated the obvious, looking now at him, only one question remaining in her mind. "I assume you brought weapons as well."

"Please, Jane. Don't insult my intelligence. I never go anywhere without guns."

She snickered under her breath: "Me neither." she pulled out a pistol from her belt behind her back, and looked at it like she was waiting for the moment she could finally use it.

Their eyes met for a second, and the looks confirmed that their days of boredom had finally ended. Saren suddenly pushed the wheel to the left, making the shuttle fly in the sea of buildings under them, looking for a spot to put down the vehicle closest to their destination. They exited on a small street, and after he locked the shuttle, they walked into the district of the Wards that was called the lower market.

It was a place of slums, where crowds were rolling beneath the buildings and through the many small streets of the place. Shops riddled the place with wares ranging from rare spices to under the counter weaponry and ship parts, even exotic animals in some cases. C-Sec loved to raid this place. Of course they usually didn't find anything, the vendors were clever in hiding their more questionable stock quite well. Spectres however always found their way into this place, as it was a great market for special weapon parts or information.

Saren in his black, skin tight robe and giant scarf wasn't looking out of place at all, but Jane in her jeans... Everyone was looking at her.

"We need to separate" he said to her as they walked down through the crowds "You're too out of place."

"Sure..." she waved, not even looking where he went. He was gone in a second, and she continued along the path, hoping she would find something.

* * *

Saren was walking down the street, trying to look for something not belonging there, something weird, anything that seemed out of place, but without any luck.

"Did you find anything?" he asked over his comms.

No reply, but he heard a noise from behind his back. He instinctively turned around, but when he did, he couldn't believe his eyes.

The entire street was empty.

The market gone, the people gone, the animals, the wares, the bustle of this place was now switched for complete silence. Only the concrete remained, and the dirty water dripping down from upstairs from the heating units of above floors, creating a sharp mirror of the buildings and their lights.

He even stopped breathing for a second in his confusion. Was he hallucinating now?

"Hello?"

No response.

"Jane. Can you hear me?"

Nothing, only the rythmic sound of the water dripping to the floor.

"Fuck, this thing is busted..." he cursed to himself, trying to bring up his omni tool that was somehow completely dead. No audio, no visuals, no network. It was just him, alone.

He looked up and started walking, trying to find out what was going on.

What the hell happened… he thought to himself as he went on looking for anything, but finding nothing and no one. That is until he walked a couple meters, and found a little opening in the wall to the side, revealing a set of stairs going up somewhere behind the wall.

He felt like that was where he needed to go.

So he did, he entered the little opening and slowly stepped up the stairs, that ended in a doorway. It was an old, weird metal door. He pushed it open and stepped in through it, and found himself in a tiny store.

It was filled with different substances, liquid and solid, all labeled with different, unknown names, some on even unfamiliar languages. The old shelves were barely holding the little bottles that were stacked on them, bending under the pressure. This was a very old, dusty shop, one that must have not been visited for long years.

He must've gone crazy. This was all nonsense, there was no way this was real. He turned to leave this place, it creeped him out to the bone.

"Not so fast..." he heard from behind his back, and he turned immediately, raising his pistol in his hand.

An old, human lady was standing there in the middle of the store, dressed in a ragged robe.

"You wouldn't want to leave so soon, you just arrived!" she said with a weird, ugly smile on her ancient face. Saren's jaw almost dropped, as he saw the lady slowly cruise through the shop, carefully dusting the little bottles on the shelves.

"Who are you? Where am I?" he asked, fast, slowly lowering his weapon in his stuntedness, now completely confused.

"Oh, that doesn't matter, my boy" smiled the lady.

"I'm not your boy, you weird wench!" he threw at her, but she ignored his slur, and continued with the bottles one by one, touching each of them with a care that was hard to fake.

"Indeed you aren't, spectre Saren Arterius. And yet here you are, in my store, looking for the Librarian."

He had no idea what to reply to that. He remained silent, hoping he would soon learn what the hell was going on here.

"You have found my clue, as I suspected." the old woman continued "Even brought that lovely girl with you."

"Who is the Librarian?" he interrupted, already bored by this show.

The lady looked at him, stopping what she was doing. Her smile spread a bit, then she turned and walked behind the counter, where she said:

"A businessman. A scientist. A criminal mastermind." she pulled a book from one of the shelves and idly replaced it onto another as she spoke "A human who wants to take the Citadel under his own rule. His name is Bertram Proctor."

"He wants to take the Citadel? That's what he needs the bio weapon for?"

The woman nodded. "That weapon is only the first step in his plan. His forces will invade, to end all resistance, and take the place he thinks he deserves."

* * *

"Saren?" Jane turned and turned, talked through the comms, but no reply, and no sight of the spectre anywhere. He wasn't hard to spot, she would've recognized him anywhere, but the crowd was so thick on the streets, she couldn't see anything. She went up and down, passing by the vendors to see if he was questioning any of them but he was nowhere to be found.

She had a bad feeling about this.

That clue they found was just too good to be true, they knew, and she was right. In all her bones she felt he was in trouble, and she could not push this feeling down.

"Saren!" she shouted, having no other means to find her partner. She cursed, not knowing what to do. "Saren, where are you?"

"Your partner is busy at the moment." came from behind her and she turned. A vendor was standing behind his stall, looking directly at her with a deadpan face. It was an old man, holding a little bottle in his hand.

"Where is he? Tell me, who are you!" she demanded, stepping to the man, almost crushing his table full of wares.

"Not to worry" the man smiled, holding up his finger "He's safe. For now."

* * *

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Saren asked, barging through the little shop like an animal. He was losing his patience with every passing second, closing his talons to crash his fist down on the counter where the old lady stood. But right that moment the lady appeared next to him, and he jumped back.

What the fuck was happening….

"I'm sure you figured out by now that this place is not real." the lady said. Her face void of emotion. "Biotics are powerful tools… capable of tricking the mind."

So she did this with her mind? Tricking his mind to this place? A never ending flow of questions hit Saren's mind as he stepped back, realizing he couldn't do anything. This wasn't real indeed.

He thought about it for a second.

"You're a hacker, aren't you?" he asked. "You brought me here."

The old lady nodded. A small, content smile lit her face up, a shadow in her eyes Saren couldn't understand. His gut feeling was screaming danger at him, but he didn't really have a choice.

"I intercepted his messages to bring you here" she explained "Proctor needs to be stopped. His plan is childish, and he will crush the galaxy in his wake, bring it to ruin. But you know of his plan now. You have his weapon. Stop him. I know his coordinates, but I have no power to stop him myself." as she said, the old lady started walking back behind the bar, putting a bottle of something down on the table. "He's a man of greed. He hosts an event in a week to celebrate his power. Infiltrate."

His stomach clenched into a little ball as he heard what was said. Everything this hacker said creeped him out, he just simply knew this was wrong.

They were bored before. Well, now they were not anymore.

The lady's face turned serious: "The coordinates were sent to your omni tool now."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" was all Saren asked.

"You don't." the lady replied, its voice fading away into some darkness, that wasn't here before "This is your only choice."

* * *

"What do you mean he's safe for now?" Jane asked, leaning over the table, demanding an answer while trying not be swept away by the force of the crowd passing right behind her "Bring him back here! NOW!"

Someone touched her shoulder.

She turned, ready to strike, but found herself in front of Saren, and almost bumped into him. He just stood there, staring into nothing above her head, standing still, only his hand was on her shoulder.

"Saren!" she breathed, looking up at him, worried "What happened? Where were you, I lost you completely!"

His eyes slowly moved to meet hers, and she could see the light returning back to them, as if he just came to his senses. His hand squeezed her strong, then he looked around, startled by the crowd around him.

"Jane" he said, pulling her to him close "We need to get the hell out of here, right now!"

And with that he grabbed her and pulled her through the crowd as fast as he could, pushing through the people like fishes against the current. Once they were out of there, he dragged her to the shuttle, where he released her shoulder. His face was puzzled, disturbed, as if he had woken from a long dream.

"Saren!" Jane called out, but he did not reply, just went to rip the door of the vehicle open "Talk to me!"

When she got no reply, she stepped to him and grabbed his hand, stopping him from getting in the shuttle. "What was that?"

He looked at her, still puzzled.

"There was a hacker here..." he mumbled, his mind still foggy, trying to make sense of reality. She didn't quite understand, but he continued: "It was some weird mind trick. But I know who and where the Librarian is now."

She swallowed her nerves. His face was tired now, his voice faint. Worry filled her mind as she looked into his eyes, and she decided it was best if they went back to the Sovereign.


	13. Undercover

**Wow look, a timely upload! :D**  
 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Saren sat down on the sofa in the lounge of the Sovereign.

His mind was still hazy from what happened less than an hour ago, like he had a veil in front of his eyes, preventing him from seeing clearly. Jane kneeled down in front of him, putting a glass of horosk in his hands.

"Here, drink this" she commanded. Her eyes were sparkling from an unknown emotion he hadn't really seen on her face yet. It was worry mixed with confusion. He looked at her for a second, just studying her face. Strangely it relaxed him, lifting the fog from his eyes a bit.

He saw a glass in her hands too. She smiled when she noticed he was looking at her.

"What?" she asked in an endearing way, moving her hands to wrap his talons around the glass.

"Nothing." he said without emotion in his voice, still trying to make sense of what was going on, concentrating on her smile. He eventually took the drink and chugged it all down in one go, just like she did.

"Better?"

He swallowed, letting the alcohol flow through him. "Yeah" he said, his mandibles parting as his features relaxed.

"I knew it would help." She smiled again as she took the glass from him and put them on the floor. She remained there, listening to him as he hunched over. "So what happened?"

"Suddenly the street was empty" he started telling the story "I found myself in this weird shop with an old frump… it was some mind trick. That wench was a hacker. He tricked my mind to… I guess she wanted to talk to me."

"You said you know where the Librarian was..." she mentioned.

"Yes. She told me. The Librarian is a criminal named Bertram Proctor. He's leading an organization and basically wants to take over the Citadel. That's why he ordered the toxin from Noveria." he explained, gathering his thoughts along the way "It was this hacker who put the numbers in the message codes, so we could find her and receive all this info..."

She thought to herself for a moment, analyzing what Saren said in her mind. She idly played with his gloved talons in her hand.

"You know where Proctor is?" she asked eventually.

He looked at his omni tool, searching for something. He received a message that showed what the hacker said was true. In there were location coordinates to a nearby system.

"It's here, that hacker sent it to me. She wants us to bring Proctor down." he said and turned his arm to show her the message. It also contained details of an event…

"A party?" she gasped. "Who was this hacker by the way? She sure had a ton of information… and she just shared this with you? Don't you find that odd?"

He sighed. "Of course I do. She needs Proctor to be stopped, but this is overkill. And that mind trick…"

"This hacker is someone from within this organization" Jane contemplated "There is no other way she would have this kind of information. Maybe she needed that mind trick because..."

"...She's being watched." Saren finished her sentence. "She couldn't risk a direct approach, so she hid the clues in Librarian's messages."

She looked straight up, not looking at the data anymore, but rather at him directly. Her voice was stern, careful. "I don't like this, Saren."

"Yet, this is our only lead."

"So, when are we going?"

He looked at the data. "Party's at 8 tonight. It's here in the Serpent Nebula, even with FTL we can get there comfortably if we go now."

 _[Immediately.]_ came from Ilsa as soon as Saren finished his sentence.

Then silence.

They were still there by the sofa, Saren sitting on it, hunched over while Jane crouched on the ground. Both of them were tired, it was like 3 in the morning at this point and they've been going all day. They were just there, relaxed, sharing this piece of quiet together.

Saren was leaning on his knees with his hands, his palms just resting there, letting her idly play with them. It seemed they both froze in the moment when she handed him that drink.

He didn't really mind.

"Saren.." she whispered, looking at his giant palm "You're very different.."

"Compared to what?"

"Compared to what they say about you."

His mandibles moved into a smile. "And what do they say about me?"

"That you're a monster." she said seriously, but he only laughed. She continued: " But you're something else… I was wondering… " she started, thinking back to when this thought originally occurred in her mind. It was a couple hours ago, when she sat in the cab, leaving that awfully boring guy behind. "You hate humans. Yet I am a human… You want to control everything but I just generally don't give a damn… How can it be, that we haven't killed each other yet?"

They both looked up from their hands and onto each other. They found themselves so weird, sitting half on the floor in barely any light. But it felt so right. This ship was theirs, this mission was theirs, they chose it for their own, and it all came so easily. Their daily habits, their teamwork, their conversations, like they've been doing this for years.

His palm turned, and now he took her tiny hands in his. "The same way how you abandoned your date to come look for me, and work in the middle of the night."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "You know I had a date?"

"I saw you in the club, it was hard to misunderstand." he said, his face repressing any emotion he might have had. He remembered how that guy whispered in her ears.

"And I smelt her cologne on you the other day" she replied suddenly, and Saren did not expect her to say that. She noticed..?

Why were they suddenly talking about this?

Silence enveloped them again. It wasn't like any of them cared about the other's sex life, they were partners after all, not lovers. Eventually, the silence was broken by Jane:

"But that still doesn't answer my question."

She watched his mandibles move again into a tired smile. Either she was extremely tired or wasted, or he looked like a god in this gloomy light of the room.

"Maybe we're both monsters, that's why." he said, half joking.

But he must have been right. It was that darkness that brought them together, even when they first met. She remembered those eyes, the mischief in them. How it intrigued her.

"You're drunk" she stated, letting out a small laugh. She let go of his hand, preparing to go and call it a day.

"Look who's talking.."

* * *

"Tell me again, one by one." said Saren to Ilsa, while he pulled up his robe and zipped it up on the front, after putting on his bulletproof vest under it.

[ _The organization's HQ is ten stories high all together._ ] started Ilsa again, not stopping when Saren entered his bathroom [ _Bottom five are storage and offices, large spaces, simple structure. 6th floor is the entry level, lounge, ballroom and other social areas serving as a front for the company that wraps the organization inside it. Simple layout, large spaces with the ballroom being the largest and centre. 7th and 8th floor is the Head Office, layout is non-standard, offices and suites alike. Top two floors are restricted. Unknown layout and purpose, most likely private lodgings of Bertram Proctor. Underground levels not confirmed. Best possible point of infiltration are the balconies of the Head Office._ ]

He looked in the mirror, studying his own features for quite a long time. He eventually dipped into a jar of black substance and warmed it up between his fingers.

"Now his background again."

[ _Bertam Proctor, known just as Proctor is a human male, age 47, Earthborn. Son of late Aaron Proctor, widely known businessman, scientist and weapons dealer who supplied various parties including the Batarian Hegemony with weapons after the First Contact War. His legacy was his corporation that his son Bertram took over shortly after his father's untimely death._ ]

He sighed once Ilsa finished the report, and he finished at the mirror as well.

He was ready to go, and they had half an hour until they could dock on this small colony world.

"And Jane?" he asked, walking to the door.

[ _Appears to be ready, currently in the lounge._ ]

He left his room.

He walked around the elevator, and through the corridor to reach the lounge. Once the door opened he stepped in, looking around for her. But what he saw wasn't Jane: but a woman with short, black hair at the bar, and he stopped in his tracks.

She turned back, and it was indeed Jane, but she looked completely different. She stood up and came closer, revealing the tight blue cocktail dress she was in. It fit her perfectly, showing off the shape of her curves, but covering, leaving many things to the imagination.

He asked her to mask her real appearance in order for them to not be so easily recognizable. After all, they were undercover.

But that hair…

Her fiery red hair was nowhere to be seen now, instead it was a dark black colour, and fell below her chin. Her eyes were brown now instead of their usual blue. She looked like a completely different person, and he wasn't sure how to respond to that. He had no idea humans could change their appearance this much, and it was terrifying and beautiful at the same time.

But he wasn't the only one who was struggling. It seemed the modifications he made on himself startled Jane, because she looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"How..." he hummed as he raised his hand to touch a strand of her new hair. It looked absolutely real. "How did you do this? Where is your real hair?"

The expression on his face brought her back to reality, and she smiled mysteriously.

"It's called a wig. It's fake hair" she explained "My real hair is tied up under it."

He tangled his talons into the strand he picked up, looking at it, then at her face, his eyes darting back and forth between the changes on her, still computing the overall picture.

"Humans are really weird..." he breathed, still mesmerized by her appearance.

"You are weird too, what even is that on your face?" she asked, trying to tease him to hide her own surprise.

He just brushed it off: "It's facepaint, not that complicated. It's quite easy to fake one when you have none."

And he nailed it for sure.

His silverish plates were a muted, darker grey colour now, but what really amazed her were those two thick, black stripes that ran along his plates horizontally and diagonally, covering his nose, his cheekbones and around his eyes. It gave him an eerie, darker look than usually. The black made his icy blue eyes stark against the darkness on his bones. Coupled with that deep, analyzing look on his face he looked like a demon to her. A very handsome demon.

They continued to look at each other, getting familiar with their outlook. Saren then turned, looking in the large mirror that was behind the bar. He was tall, his appearance dark and frightening, but Jane was small, delicate and light, like an angel.

"We don't look like a couple..." Jane suddenly said, referring to their plan that was exactly that: pretend they're a couple, it was the easiest relation they could think of that didn't require loads of preparation.

His response came swift, and she saw it all through the mirror.

His head turned to face her so fast, she had no time to react. He grabbed her by the waist with his right hand and pulled her close to him with a quick move, pressing her against his side. She gasped in her surprise. She saw his giant turian arm wrap around her, his talons hold her, digging into the fabric of her dress.

A bolt of electricity shot through her. His mandible twitched unwittingly.

"Now, we look like it." he purred, his voice suddenly a lot lower than usual, a husky undertone colouring it, that she did not notice before.

It was only then that her reflexes turned back on, after her whole body froze for a second. She firmly pushed him away, letting out a very controlled laugh.

"If you do that again, you will be a dead spectre..." she hissed at him, the picture of him grabbing her in the mirror burning deep into her mind.

"I suggest you get better at acting if we want to pull this off" he said with a stern look.

She waved at him, turning to leave the room: "Whatever..."

When the door shut closed behind her, he remained there.

After a second, he let out a long, ragged breath. Fuck. Her scent was all over him now, and there was nothing he could do about it. He cursed his foolishness.

* * *

Jane tugged the bottom part of her dress down as she landed on the balcony, already hating the fact she had to wear this tight outfit and high heels while on a mission. On a dinner or a party it was fine, but on a mission... Saren came up right behind her and stepped to the balcony door to open it. They entered the building and went through the meeting rooms and corridors of the Head Office, that was currently empty.

"Here's one of the elevators" Saren said as they approached one on one of the back corridors "Let me see what we have here."

He then proceeded to interact with the console, while Jane looked around. "There's no one here, everyone's probably at the party."

"Ilsa" Saren talked to his comms "I'm in the system. Check what the basement under these 10 floors hold and get access to it."

[Of course.]

"You suspect there is something down there?" Jane asked, still watching the corners.

"Yes."

[The basement is under military grade encryption. It might take some time for me to get in there.] said Ilsa.

"Ok..." said Saren, thinking. Then eventually he looked at Jane: "I'll stay here see if I can help Ilsa with this, you go ahead."

She rolled her eyes. "Our target is Proctor, and not the basement." she teased "If you remain here for too long, I might finish the mission without you."

He coughed, a smirk on his face. "Don't rush it, Jane. I want to be there when he dies."

"Well, then hurry up!" she replied, already turning away and waving to him as she left.

* * *

She sneaked down a level and cruised through the lounge like she always belonged here. She entered the ballroom and without talking to anyone, she just went through the room right to the giant bar on the side. She hated espionage, these missions were Nihlus' territory instead of hers, but she made sure to do her best. She mingled as best she could, pretending to be one of the prestigious customers of the company, which wasn't really that hard, considering how she liked her alias. Alison Gunn, the merc queen, well versed in weaponry and the like, just right up her field of expertise.

And the men flocked to chat with her. It seemed a young woman in the industry was all they dreamed of as they bought her every drink she could wish for. All non-alcoholic, of course. She needed to stay sober now.

So they chatted. Smaller arms dealers, vendors of the company, customers, stakeholders. Until one specific man came right up to her.

"It is rare to see such a beautiful woman in the industry." the man greeted. He had short, brown hair, green eyes and a short beard well kept on his angular face. He was a lot older than her, around Saren's age. He looked at her like a piece of meat and she didn't quite like it, but had to play along. "Bertram Proctor. It is my pleasure to meet you, Miss..."

"Gunn. Alison Gunn." she replied with a polite smile.

"I don't seem to know you, Miss Gunn, but it is lovely to have you at my party."

She laughed a bit, just enough for him to think she was comfortable here. "My merc band are one of your smaller customers. It is my pleasure to meet the man behind it all."

He was flattered, she could see it from that smug curl of his lips.

It was hard to believe this was the man behind the bio weapon. But she knew humans were capable of anything.

"I worked hard on my company, and I can tell you with pride, it is finally paying off." he boasted, straightening his back as he stood in front of her. "Would you like a drink?"

"Ah, thank you, but I must refuse" she smiled again "The other guests were lovely enough to shower me with beverages, I'm afraid I have reached my limit."

"That is a pity. I hoped I could sway you for a little chat over a drink." he offered, moving just a bit closer to her "I must admit your beauty is messing me up..."

Ughhh.

Those words, and that disgusting way he said them reminded her of the cheesy ways drunktards tried to pick her up at every bar ever. But sometimes, even they were more creative than this man, so she dreaded this even more.

But before she could utter another a rejection, a hand gently slid to her lower back, and from the corner of her eyes he saw a very familiar silhouette step close to her.

"I'm sorry I had to leave, honey" Saren said as his arm wrapped around her and he pulled her close "I just had to take this call." He lied. She could tell he was very good at this.

He looked at Proctor like he was an insect. And Proctor didn't like it at all. Jane could feel the murderous aura of the two men as she stood there, deeply entertained by the show. She tried to ignore Saren's hand on her back, after all they were supposed to be a couple now. And the conversation that followed along did make her forget.

"Oh, and you are…?" Bertam asked, his eyes killing the turian in his mind already.

"Varus Octon" he replied "I can see you already met my mate, Alison."

"I did indeed, and I must say you are a very lucky turian… It almost seems unreal that a beauty like her would ever touch a brute like you..."

If Saren's eyes could spit fire, this whole building would already be burning.

"I can't help but think… " he retaliated "If you're insulting _me_ , or her intelligence with that barbaric comment."

"Both" Jane stated firmly, moving closer to Saren.

Proctor's face got red so fast, they could swear he was going to explode.

"Let's go" Saren said, guiding her away from the man with his hand behind her back. She opened her mouth to comment on his verbal fight with Proctor, but he wasn't finished: "I haven't danced in years."

She looked up at him as they walked off, terror in her eyes.

"No!" she replied hastily "You cannot make me dance!"

They were walking right to the middle of the room.

"Don't tell me the first human spectre in the galaxy is afraid of some harmless dancing..." he teased her, a spark of mischief in his eyes.

"I can't dance. No..."

He chuckled, leading Jane to her doom: the dance floor.


	14. Under pressure

**Hope you enjoy.**  
 **More to come, of course! ;)**

* * *

The middle of the ball room was filled with couples slowly dancing away to the boring, slow rhythm of this weird music Saren never heard before. He assumed it must have been some classical human music. As they arrived to the centre of the room where they disappeared amidst the guests, they stopped, and he turned to face Jane.

The woman had a devastated look on her face. She looked like she was on death row, and he could tell she wanted to jump out the window just about now. His mandibles twitched from the effort he made to repress his laughter.

"One day, I will kill you. But your death will be slow and painful..." she hissed at him as he moved his hand to hold her by her waist and took her left hand in his. Her skin was warm, a lot warmer than his own.

"Hush" he ordered, firm and serious.

Her eyes narrowed, she looked up at him, forgetting her anger for a moment. He took a small step sideways, moving her to follow him, and they started a very slow, low-key dance.  
She was indeed horrible at dancing. She tried not to step on his feet but his steps were way too big and hers too small. But he quickened their pace, moved her by her core, using his weight carefully to influence the movement of her shoulders and hands. He turned her gently, controlling every part of her body indirectly.

"Bullshit you can't dance." he whispered "You do it all the time on the battlefield."

That struck a chord with her, she turned in front of him, swept away by the dynamics of his moves, following along to this dark rythm of his. He fit so well into this game of theirs, she had no idea this side of him existed. He was controlled and cold as always, but gentle, guiding her into meeting him with their dance.

She remembered fighting. That feeling of lightning coursing through her body, that excitement, the rhythm of her foes falling to the ground and flying in the air as she laughed. She recognized that impulse in their flow, in their steps. She looked up at him.

His mandibles moved, with the slightest smile on his face as his eyes found her.

"There you go..." he purred as she turned again and re-joined him in his arms, now a smile on her face too. She let go of her ego, it seemed his metaphor worked. Her moves started resembling water, smooth, just like when she fought… that unapologetic joy appeared in her eyes again as she let out a small laugh.

"Now listen" he suddenly said, bringing her closer to him, whispering to her. "We're not just here to dance."

She figured this much.

Saren wasn't the type who just did things for no reason, especially something like purposeless dancing in the middle of a stealth mission. But it was a good cover if they wanted to talk privately, without drawing too much attention.

"Then talk." she replied firmly as they moved, and he checked around them before he started to share his thoughts with her on his now low, careful tone.

"Ilsa found that the lower basement is a server room. We need to find out what that is before we do the deed." he said, obviously referring to killing Proctor, but not saying it out loud "I'm not sure what those servers run, but it think it's connected to his plan. You need to help me figure it out."

"Me?" she asked as they turned a bit again in their dance.

"He has a thing for you, we should use that." he proposed, earning a look of fire in response from her.

"I see, you want to be dead that badly. You could have just said so." she teased playfully "You didn't have to take me dancing and offer to seduce a criminal…."

They turned slightly again, their dance slowing down as they both leaned in to keep the privacy of their conversation. He had to slid his hand lower down her back to keep her close enough so she could hear him.

He heard her heartbeat steadying. Maybe she was starting to become comfortable with this game.

"I never said you should seduce him." he whispered, raising a brow "Just make sure he pays attention to you for some time, while I investigate."

She rolled her eyes at him and he already knew he won. "Then make sure that investigation is worth it!"

He smiled confidently, but before he could answer, he suddenly saw Proctor peeking at the dance floor, looking for them. He looked into Jane's eyes, opening his mouth to speak, but another couple suddenly bumped into them.

These people were too close, and he needed their plan to stay hidden, so he leaned even closer to Jane to whisper.

"He's watching us."

She didn't turn to check, just tried to continue moving as natural as possible. She leaned a bit closer too, mimicking Saren's whispering. "How much time do you need?"

As she leaned in, he caught the scent of her, now stronger than before. He instinctively bowed further down, whispering directly into her ear.

"An hour."

His low voice almost melted into her mind. A very unexpected shiver ran through her as she felt his breath on her neck, so close she couldn't move her body. She felt his right mandible touch her jaw, and she just couldn't react to this with reason. This was the closest she's ever been to him, and this strange, alien feeling struck her like lightning.

And Saren felt her insides shudder, her heartbeat quicken. It startled him almost, trapping the air in him. He was never this close to a human before… never should have been. But at the same time he could not pull away.

"An hour." she confirmed slowly "But then hurry back.."

Her tone was very different now. Her husky voice was muted by her whispering, and it was a melody in his ears. That sweet beating of her heart, that cherry scent wiped his mind empty suddenly, and as they turned in their dance, his talons spread on her back, moving up, slowly grazing the fabric of her dress that melted onto her. He felt her chest rise with her breath, her cheek almost touching his jaw.

He didn't reply, instead they continued dancing for another minute, intertwined, silent.

Trapped in the moment.

"I do not fancy this black hair…" he whispered, looking at her wig, that although looked natural, he missed the red colour. Especially now, somehow. "I like the original better."

She laughed a bit, closing her eyes as she did. She was strangely relaxed in his arms, keeping up her game, but her heart was beating in her throat. He couldn't not take this any further.

"That red" he purred, a deep, faint growl almost starting in his chest, and she felt the vibrations as her chest pressed against his "Is that your natural colour, or artificial?"

She opened her eyes to look right into his, her face inches away: "Natural." she said with a smile of a queen, proud and strong.

Saren always thought finally learning the answer to that question will satisfy a curiosity within him regarding unimportant human genetics, but when he heard her reply, that's not what happened. Instead he completely forgot about that, and wanted that black wig gone. He wanted to see her real hair, her real eyes, and the thought moved him somehow.

"Now go." she said and slowly pushed him away from herself. He stepped back, still looking at her with that predatory look, even as he walked out. Once he was gone, she let out a long breath, shaking her head as she smiled. He hated humans or not, he was a hell of a player. Them pretending to be a couple was a damn good plan considering how well he played the gentleman.

But was he playing at all? She wasn't sure anymore, he had this reputation of a rough personality, which wasn't exactly a lie when she thought of the earlier days of them knowing each other… but then again he was never rude with her.

She didn't even realize she was smiling until someone tapped her shoulder from behind and got thrown off. It was Proctor of course.

"Alison..." he started, nodding his head respectfully to her "I'd like to apologize for my previous behavior, it was very intrusive of me. How could I make it up to you?"

His speech was tacky like glue, and she hated it. But she had a mission.

"I need to get out of this room..." she pretended, putting her hand to her temple. "That bastard left me here again!"

"Let's take a walk." Proctor said and offered his hand "I'll show you around."

* * *

Saren was down in the basement in mere minutes.

He went so fast, trying his best to forget that little dance. That couple thing was working out too well... and he could not afford the luxury to think of how beautiful she was in the middle of an assassination mission. What was wrong with him...

So he shut it all away.

He made sure to evade all the guards, and the ones he could not ignore - the ones guarding the elevator on base level - he eliminated quietly. Ilsa helped with the cameras to ensure he does not pop up on any security screens, so he could easily proceed to the server room he wanted to check out.

It was almost offering itself. They tracked a bio weapon down to its root, a criminal organization, through a route that was a lot more complicated than it usually is. It was all too logical that something bigger was going on here, and whatever it was, this server room was playing a part in it. Its size was simply just too big for this building, for this organization that largely operated locally.

When he was tweaking with the door controls to try and get access in, he was listening on the comms to what Jane and Proctor chatted about. He wished he wouldn't have to, but turning off their comms was a hazard to mission success while separated like this, so that was not an option.

Proctor was showing Jane the offices as they spoke.

[I find it hard to comprehend that your mate just left you like this.] he heard Proctor say.

[He can be such an ass!] Jane replied, passionately, playing the hurt woman. He was letting a little laugh escape him as he listened onwards [You see he's handling the logistics behind my group, and sometimes I just feel like he doesn't even care about me anymore.]

[If that is true, then he's an idiot.]

The door opened.

Saren slowly stepped in, checking both sides for any guards, but there was no one in there. He went further and closed the door behind him, giving him some privacy to look around. The room was huge, and was filled with server computers standing in giant towers, creating many rows with separated corridors to the backsides where the cabling was arranged in each row. It was huge. Way too big for this building only. This was a completely separate network.

[Say, I have some other arrangements tonight] he heard from the comms [But I would be happy if you and Varus could accompany me next week on a field trip to Illium?]

Jane replied with a small cough at first [Ah… It would be an honor! But I must admit I thought you were devoting this night to your guests? The loyal customers of your company?]

[Ah] Proctor laughed sheepishly [Unfortunately even I cannot escape my duties, no matter how much money I have.]

He thought he was going to vomit for a second.

This man was an absolute idiot, he had no idea how Proctor even managed to order a bio weapon.

[And, this is my office here. Come on in.]

He was taking her to his office? Oh, if he was going to try anything with her, he's going to learn the hard way who Jane is… or in this case, Alison Gunn.

* * *

"This is beautiful!" Jane gasped, looking at the personal office of Proctor, that was indeed a modern wonder. All of its surfaces were either cold, grey metal, or shiny glass. The idea in and of itself was not bad, but the immense amount of greenery and that giant waterfall on the back wall… The overflow of frippery was just too much for her.

"Thank you." he said, not even paying attention to how forced that comment she made was "A drink, perhaps?"

"Whiskey. Neat, please."

And she was handed her drink in less than a minute. They toasted, and Proctor thought:

"Hmm… let's drink for… loyal customers."

"... And excellent delivery." she added, trying to sound as sly as possible, which really wasn't that hard. They shared a smile and as she thought of how boring all of this was, and that she still had half an hour remaining from that promised hour… a shiver almost ran down her spine.

But suddenly the door opened, and a turian stepped in. It was a tall, strong and lean woman, with stark red paint over her face. She slipped in, and made her way to Proctor, nodding to both of them politely.

"Mr. Procor, forgive me for the intrusion" she started, her voice as smooth as silk as she looked at Jane "But the time has come to start making the preparations."

"Oh yes..." he said, slowly nodding to her. They shared a glance and Proctor looked at Jane as well: "I'm sorry. Lyeria, meet Alison Gunn, one of our guests."

"It is my pleasure." Lyeria said, bowing deep in front of her, and even though it surprised her, she made sure to quickly bow as well. She didn't want to hurt any traditions or protocol, it would've been too risky. Proctor continued:

"She's helping me with the arrangements f tonight I mentioned before. How should I say it… Lyeria is my right hand, my..."

"...Librarian." she finished the sentence, looking directly into Jane's eyes.

Her heart almost stopped.

Proctor laughed a bit, not noticing the change in her expression: "Yes… That is her nickname around here."

Jane's heart was pumping blood so fast, she could hear it pulsing in her own ears.

No. He wasn't the Librarian.

Proctor had no clue, she could see it on his face, but the turian girl...

"So, Mr." she started again "I will go ahead then, and start."

"Yes please." Proctor replied, not even looking at her, but Jane.

Everything happened so fast, she could barely blink.

Lyeria raised her hand up with a gun held in it, and without a second of hesitation she shot Proctor in head, while standing right next to him. The man fell to the ground as blood spattered everywhere, and the turian looked at Jane.

"He was such an idiot..." the woman's face lit up in the most hellish smile Jane ever seen on any woman's face. "And you are too, my dear. Alison Gunn…. Ha!" she laughed "More like Jane Shepard, am I right?"

"Who the fuck are you?" she asked, immediately taking a step back, reaching for her gun on her side.

She smiled, again.

"The real Librarian."

She knew there was something off with this entire story… But what the hell was going on?


	15. Under fire

**Hey :)**

 **Hope you like this chapter, a bit of action :)**

* * *

"I'm the real Librarian."

Jane saw the woman's red paint on her face fade into a darkness as everything went black for her and she lost her vision and balance. She fell back, trying to grab onto something while processing the information she just heard.

"What the fuck? What are you doing to me?" she shouted, reaching to her eyes that could see nothing anymore. What did this woman do to her brain? Why wasn't she seeing anything?

She heard a noise and felt a strong slap crash into the side of her face and she fell back.

"One of my tricks!" laughed Lyeria.

She felt her back crash into glass as she fell into the wall of the office, bringing down the glass mounted on the walls behind her, panicking from suddenly not being able to see. She landed on the ground as the shards fell on her body, cutting through her skin and dress. She couldn't see a thing, it was all just this grey noise in her mind, not letting her use her eyes no matter how hard she tried.

She crouched up, trying to stand up when she felt another hit, this time a leg slamming into her face and she was back down again. Her neck almost twisted as it tried to withstand the impact of the kick, pain jolting through her muscles. She cried out in her exertion, but without her seeing a thing she stood no chance.

She tried to fight, but it was no use.

She tried to stand up but there was nowhere to go.

"It's hard fighting without vision, right?" she heard from the Librarian, her voice moving as she stepped around her back and forth "This is gonna be so easy!"

Jane felt blood coming up her throat as she tried to speak: "Why did you kill Proctor?"

"Ha!" she laughed again, coming closer "Did you really think he ordered the rachni toxin? That ass?" her laughter rang out one more time, and Jane tried to stand up in the meanwhile, the pain in her neck making her dizzy.

"Let me tell you my dear" Lyeria started again "Proctor wanted a weapon to take over the Citadel with. Unfortunately for him, I, as his assistant, had much better plans."

"What?" Jane asked, confused.

The woman's voice was demonic. "His plan is useless. He wants to take the Citadel, but the galaxy is not just the Citadel." she hissed "Council space was always in the way of the freedom of the Terminus systems. He wanted to rule, but to rule, we need Council space freed up from the reign of the Council. And joined with the Terminus. So he had to die."

"You want to unite the galaxy?"

"I will." she continued, as she paced around her "I have access to everything he has access to as his assistant. His people turn to me, instead of him. They are my people now, and with his death, nothing stands in my way anymore."

"You're wrong" Jane said, slowly getting up, even with her vision clouded and wounds covering her body. "I'll shut you up!"

* * *

Lyeria… why was this name so familiar to Saren?

[I'll shut you up!]

He was standing in the middle of the server room, frozen, listening to the conversation on his comms. The analysis of the servers Ilsa did was going slowly, but almost finishing. He knew this was a trap from the first second, but they had to get in. There is no other way they can stop this mess.

But he heard Jane's voice over his earpiece.

She was coughing blood. The sound of it started a strange feeling in his stomach that almost made him sick. It was something he never felt before, and had no idea what it was.

But he was angry.

[I doubt that] he heard the Librarian reply [You're blind in front of my feet, and your precious Saren is stuck in my server room, having no idea what is going on...]

What…

[How do you know where he-] Jane hissed, clearly struggling still.

[The same way I took your sight, you idiot. I specialize in biotics affecting the brain.]

"Fuck." was all Saren said to himself before the woman continued.

[I'm the hacker Saren spoke to. You're not here because of your investigation. You're here because I want you to be here.] he heard her tone change as she smiled [I was the one who suggested the toxin to Proctor. I gave the rachni egg to the batarians and instructed them to carry out development in secrecy on Noveria. But when you took the weapon, only then did I realize who's lab I chose accidentally.]

[It was also you, who attacked our ship, right?] he heard Jane speak up [But because you couldn't take the weapon from us by force, you decided to lure us here….]

He heard laughter.

A laughter that was vile.

[Partially true. But after finding out Saren was involved… I had to lure you here. I know you're in contact with him right now, you spectres love your earpieces. Right?]

"I heard everything, Jane" Saren said to the comms. "You can tell her. I want to know who this is and what she wants from me."

It was true.

Lyeria…. The name was familiar to him, but he didn't know from where.

[He hears you.] Jane said [What do you want from him?]

[Of course, he doesn't even know me, or what I could want. How could he remember? His ego is bigger than the Menae, he would never remember a name like mine.]

He felt anger emanating from the woman's voice.

[I'm pretty sure he never told you, how years ago he bombed Temple Palaven down? With his brother and thousands of innocent people in it? Along with _my_ brother who had nothing to do with all of that shit?]

[What?]

"Jane..." he breathed.

Only silence came back from the other side.

This was bad.

The chances of them running into a hacker wanting to take over the world who also wanted revenge for his brother's death… was as slim as it can be.

[That's right, Saren. You roamed the galaxy destroying lives for far too long, but this ends now. A new era is coming, under my rule. And coincidentally, I can finish you off while making it happen.]

[Saren...] he heard Jane. Her voice was surprised, low, even sad. [Is this true?]

Laughter shook the room. [Of course it is true!] said Lyeria, chuckling [He didn't even tell you?]

Saren breathed in, deep, looking at the floor in front of him.

He turned around and focused on the comms in his ears.

* * *

[Jane.] he started, his voice cold. Jane could hear he tried to control the anger in him as best as he could. [My brother was crazy. He created a bio weapon that would have zombified the entire population of Palaven. It would have destroyed the turian race. I had no other choice.]

So that was the reason why he was so cautious about bio weapons.  
Why he didn't like this whole toxin mess, and why he was so silent when it was suspected this is bigger than just a weapon.  
He had to kill his own brother.  
Bomb him.

She tried to stand. He whole body was on fire, her head was dizzy and her neck barely moved. She still couldn't see anything, but she still stood, slow and unstable, she faced the woman in front of her. She did not reply to Saren.

"So, what happens next?"

She couldn't see it, but the turian smiled, her eyes sparking up with every word as she said:

"You die here."

And she moved, kicking Jane in the stomach, and as she fell back Lyeria slammed her to the ground. She cried out in pain, and with her vision lost, there was nothing she could do. She was slammed to the floor again and again, before her neck was grabbed, and she felt her body lifted from the floor, high up into the air.

A drop of blood ran down her chin as she struggled for air, but the talons around her neck held her still, strangling her, squeezing the air out of her lungs and what felt like her backbone was being crushed at her neck.

"Saren Arterius" Lyeria shouted "You are in my server room. It is a network of machines, hosting a galaxy wide network that obeys my commands and houses my comms channels throughout the galaxy."

Her voice was cold as ice, but all Jane could feel was death looming over her head as less and less air was pushing into her lungs. She gasped, grabbing the Librarian's arm, trying to break free, but but to no avail.

"Proctor had resources. A lot of resources. When he asked me to order the weapon, I did. But why order one, when you have resources for five weapons instead?"

Jane heard Saren gasp on the other side of the comms.

"Why attack the Citadel with one weapon, when you can attack the entire galaxy with 5 of them, multiplying the damage?" she continued, joy filling up her voice.

"One for the Citadel… One for Omega..."

Jane coughed up blood, her nails drawing blue blood from the arms of the turian.

"One for Illium… One for Thessia..."

Saren turned towards the server machines.

This is stopping now.

"... And one for Earth."

He will end this now.

"You choose." Lyeria continued, pressing a talon into Jane's throat, and she squealed. She felt every drop of energy leaving her. "Destroy the network, stop my plan, but I will snap your little girl's neck."

His madibles clicked, his talons stopping in his pockets.

"Or come, and save your girl, but the galaxy as you know it will not exist anymore. Millions will die and you will be responsible for it."

Saren froze.

His mandibles clicked anxiously as memories flooded him.

His brother… he had to let him die to save Palaven.

But now… Jane…

"You need to choose, Saren."

He reached into his pocket and took out a little orb. It was a tiny bomb he carried with himself at all times, in case something needed to be blown up.

All that was needed was activating this little bomb, leave it in here and the network carrying the info for Lyeria would be gone, stopping her from blowing up the galaxy.  
And Jane would die in that second.

Lyeria reached to her own comms in her ears: "Ready the network, start the countdown."

"Saren..." Jane gasped over her comms, her voice faint, weak as a whisper. "What was... his name?"

[Desolas. Desolas Arterius.]

Her eyes closed.  
He was crazy, he said… he was his brother.  
Her hands let go of Lyeria's arms, and with that she stopped fighting. She let our her last breath, and felt as her lungs emptied, a silence taking over her body that she never felt before. It was a feeling of emptiness, a lack of energy. A darkness that took over her and her mind shut down.

 _You need to choose, Saren._

She felt a chill. A lingering cold, that slowly turned into warmth in her hand. It felt like the first time she held his hand, when she joined him at the stairs… back when their partnership started. It was electricity there. She remembered, she felt like a queen at the time.

He chose her.

She was the first human spectre, and he chose her.

They were spectres, because where everyone else failed, they persevered.

"Saren..." she whispered, her eyes opening slightly "I am not Desolas."

And in a second, her limbs came alive, her fingers wrapped around Lyeria's arms and before the turian could react, Jane raised both her legs, and with her last drop of energy she shot them right into the woman's face as she held her, almost kicking her head from her neck.

She was let go, and they both fell to the ground.

Jane coughed aggressively, but stood up immediately, letting the blood out of her lungs, and as she opened her eyes, she concentrated on her vision.

* * *

Saren heard the noise of a grapple, and he knew that Jane broke free.

He heard her voice break out over the comms.

[You forgot one thing, you bitch] she coughed [I'm a biotic too!]

And as a sound of an explosion shot into his earpiece, deafening him, a bolt of electricity ran through his body.

His mandibles parted so far, it revealed the largest smile on his face since years.

He pressed the button on the little orb he held, and it started beeping as it activated. He let it slide out of his hand, and it dropped onto the floor. He turned around, and went for the door, opened it and left. He turned to the elevator, almost running he was walking so fast.

He found a group of guards at the elevator, probably a part of Lyeria's plan to capture him however this scenario would have ended.

He went through them like a tidal wave through paper houses.

* * *

The shockwave went through the room, shattering the glass walls, the fountain and the desk, the bar, everything. Lyeria fell onto the ground after crashing into the wall.

"What?" she screamed from the pain as she moved to stand up, her carapace protecting her from the flying shards of glass that coated the room like a tornado.

"You invited two nightmares into your home!" Jane shouted, jumping to the turian, her vision now completely returned as she broke Lyeria's hold over her brain "And now one of them will blow up your network and kill all of your soldiers in this fucking building. And the other one will rip off your head like a toy ball! All of the shitty criminals you call customers will perish!"

Lyeria had no time to react. She was bombarded with constant shockwaves from Jane, who eventually reached her and grabbed her by the neck, throwing her out to the office corridor, then lifting her with biotics and she sent her to the wall again. She then reached under her dress and grabbed the gun held on her thigh, to shoot her with it.

She was coming after her like a demon, destroying everything in her wake.

The woman barely escaped her shots as she started running through the head offices, jumping behind desks, and as the papers and wood flew into the air from the gunshots, she eventually escaped to the elevator on the floor.

She pressed all the buttons quickly, trying to get into the shaft, but when the door opened, she stepped back.

The door swooshing open revealed a turian with bright blue eyes and black paint looking right at her: a loud growl escaped Saren's chest as he raised his leg and kicked the woman in the stomach so she fell away from the lift.

She landed on her back, and just as she tried to get up, she felt a foot step right onto her chest, pushing her back down. Coming up from behind, Jane pressed her heels into her neck, and stepped over her casually, looking down into her eyes.

"Fuck your masterplan!" she said with a disgusted expression, her black wig no more on her head, instead her red hair fell into her face as she raised her gun, and while standing on her chest, she pulled the trigger.

Saren saw the scene from the elevator, as Jane stepped on the turian and shot her right in the head. Blood splattered everywhere. His breath left him as she stood there, her hair loose, covered in blood, standing on the body completely victorious, not a single one of her limbs shaking. She killed her in cold blood, and as Jane turned to face the elevator, their eyes met.

Her eyes sparked up as she found him, a tired smile lighting up her blood covered face.

She was beautiful.

And here he stood, reaching his left hand out of the lift, for her to hold.

She stepped to him, took his hand and he pulled her into the elevator that closed.

As it travelled up, the building shook under them, the concrete giving in to the pressure the bomb caused on the lower levels, and they felt the structure falling apart right under their feet.

"Jane.." he started, holding her by her waist, turning to face her as the elevator screeched from the effort it made to proceed.

"What did you do, this building is coming down!" she asked as if everything was okay, not a single sign of pain on her face.

"I planted a small bomb on each level. The shuttle is on the roof, waiting for us."

She smiled.

"I killed that bitch..."

"You did..." he smiled back at her, and as the elevator doors swooshed opened, they made their way to their shuttle, got in and watched the whole building come down from the sky.

* * *

Saren put down the shuttle inside the cargo hold of the Sovereign so fast, the metal made a high pitched sound as the vehicle crashed into it. He ripped out the door and went to the other side. Jane stepped out of the shuttle, covered in blood all over.

"Saren I..." she hissed, the pain finally showing on her face. She reached her hand out and took a step towards him, but her legs quickly gave up, since she had no more adrenalin to go on. She collapsed, right into Saren's arms.

He caught her, and immediately lifted her up into his arms, and turned to carry her to the med bay. He put her down on the bed there, and leaned over her. She had wounds all over her body, mostly from cuts of glass. Her breathing was stable, it seemed she had no serious injuries.

He sat down next to the bed.

The moment Lyeria said he needed to choose, his mind just switched off. That never happened before. This was her purpose, to make him feel what he felt all those years ago… but she did not calculate Jane into the picture.

Saren smiled as she looked at her partner.

Her red hair fell on her chest as she laid there, breathing slowly from exertion. The whole office was fucked up after she went through it. And how she shot this bitch… pride filled his chest at the thought.

He knew she was good.  
But now he respected her.

But then she moved.  
"Hey..." she sighed, opening her eyes a bit.

"Don't speak. You need rest." he commanded immediately, a stern expression on his face.

"Next time..." she started, slowly "Tell me in advance if you have any skeletons in the closet… ok?" she asked with a slight smile.

He smiled back at her, and moved his talons into her hair, stroking her head. She closed her eyes in response.

"There won't be a next time. I ran out of skeletons."

She laughed a bit, but the movement hurt her, so she immediately started hissing.

His face turned serious.

"Why did you say you're not like my brother?"

She opened her eyes again. She looked at him and raised a hand up. He grabbed it and held her tiny hand in his giant talons. Just like he did last time.

"You will never have to make..." she struggled "...a choice like that with me."

His insides shuddered. He could barely gather his thoughts to answer.  
There was not a single person in this galaxy, who saw him for what he was. Who was willing to partner with him, come with him… accept him.

Except for her.


	16. Relax

Saren made sure Jane gets proper medical help as soon as possible.

Her wounds weren't deep, mostly cuts, but she strained her neck that required time to heal. A turian kicking her in the face was no joke: she had to stay bedridden for weeks, and even after that, combat was a big no as per doctor's orders. But they didn't stop: the rest of the bioweapons with the remaining groups of the organization had to be cleaned up to entirely eliminate the threat. Saren made sure these criminals would not live long enough, and once Jane was in fighting condition, she happily joined him in his cleanup work.

The Council was satisfied, but not as satisfied as they themselves.

They went from system to system, planet to planet, doing what they were born to do. They hunted the weapons down and usurped them, killing every criminal and destroying every single one of their facilities in their wake. They left behind nothing but ashes.

And strangely, it all went so smooth. The long nights spent with analysis, the raids, the constant training that they resumed as soon as it was allowed for Jane. It was just them and their assignment, no disturbances. They got used to spending every morning with training, and sharing drinks occasionally when they weren't working. They forgot about the Citadel and society, up until the point where four months passed, and they collected all the weapons and completely eradicated the Librarian's organization.

And when it was finally wiped from the face of the galaxy, they returned to the Citadel.

* * *

Saren turned to Jane as they finished their morning training in the training room of the spectre office. After that they had a meeting with the Council to report in. He stretched his shoulders as he looked at her:

"I still don't get why you let them live."

She smiled. He was so bloodthirsty, he wanted to kill everything that moved and was his enemy, and the poor stupid mercenaries they encountered on their last trip were no exception. She got used to it quite quickly, as she also didn't really have much remorse for the scum of the galaxy. If there would be a thousand Sarens roaming around the galaxy, the criminal underworld would be up in flames in two weeks.

"Those were just stupid mercenaries, no point wasting our time on them. They weren't important." she replied, looking at him as he went to get his robe from the other room.

He was so giant, she had no idea how did she even manage to deliver some of her moves just minutes ago. Even among turians he was considered tall, and his amazing build only added to that feeling. She watched him pass her on his way to take a shower, now only in a training short. She sighed.

After these couple months, she realized she loved to be his partner. They were unstoppable together, and every day his intelligence and strength amazed her. He was still cold hearted for sure, but she loved it. She didn't know anyone who was so unapologetically going by their own rules, even if harsh and ruthless, but doing good in the world at the end of the day.

Saren turned back to reply with eyes radiating mischief: "If I recall correctly, you said you will " _burn the rotten part of the galaxy_ "... But now you're picky about your enemies?" His mandibles moved into a smile with every word. He enjoyed teasing her.

"I deserve some luxury sometimes, you know!" she smiled back, joking.

He waved at her, then left for that shower.

The last couple months have been amazing.

After she got better she just couldn't be stopped. Saren had no idea a woman this strong, dedicated and cheerful even existed, but here she was. They were going through criminals like hot knife through butter and he loved it.

Because somehow, it seemed they understood each other on a very primal level. Their appetite to fight and move and kill was the same. But when he was controlled and cold she was living fire and emotion. He approved his own partner-choosing ability.

After they both finished with their own shower, they flew to the Citadel Tower as discussed. They entered the Council chambers confidently, their joint report already sent. They stepped onto the platform together, looking at the Council members who looked at each other instead of them.

"Your report is impressive" Valern started "All the weapons have been delivered and destroyed accordingly. All the criminal operations linked have been dealt with."

"This is exactly what we hoped for." Tevos added with a polite smile on her face as she nodded, impressed.

"Yes..." murmured Sparatus, with disbelief was apparent in his voice. He did not remove his vigilant eyes from Jane who stood his gaze.

"Shepard, we got word of your injuries from Saren. I hope you feel better now." Tevos continued. It was all courtesy, but Jane smiled nonetheless.

"Yes, thank you."

"Is there a particular reason we had to provide our report personally?" Saren suddenly asked, having no patience for small talking right now. Jane looked at the serious expression lingering on his face.

"Right to the point as always." Valern nodded in agreement.

"Yes, there is, Saren." Tevos continued "Your actions have been most satisfactory, and have served galactic stability well. However, in light of Shepard's recent injury.."

"You are receiving two weeks of mandatory leave." Sparatus suddenly finished. "You cannot return to duty before completing the allotted time."

The Council saw the two spectres simultaneously get tense in a matter of a second. Saren's mandibles twitched in frustration immediately, while Jane's mouth opened in shock.

A jail sentence, that's what it was.

Jane immediately spoke up: "Councilor, I am more than fit for dut-"

"Suffering a serious neck trauma while eradicating a complete emerging crime syndicate on your first independent assignment isn't ideal." Sparatus continued, cutting her in half "You will attend a mandatory health examination to evaluate your current condition. Until then, you're grounded."

"Are you shitting me?" Jane blurted out, facing the outraged Sparatus who already moved to raise his voice, but Tevos stopped him.

"This is for your own good, Shepard" she said "Consider this two weeks of vacation."

She sighed.

"As for you Saren, you have no mandatory examination." said Valern to the turian "But the mandatory leave is in effect for you as well."

Saren looked at Jane who was about to blow up from anger, and suddenly felt the same feelings going through him as well. "I hardly think this is necessary." was all he said with a stoic expression. There was no point in fighting the Council in this, he didn't want to make it even worse for them.

"It is the Council's decision." Sparatus said, ending the meeting at that, nodding to the spectres they can leave.

* * *

"I can't believe you! You said nothing!" Jane was furious as they stepped out of the Council chambers and into the elevator, taking them down to the Wards.

"Jane" Saren started, looking at her, fighting back his frustration "I don't like it either, but if we object, they can put the Sovereign under lockdown to keep us here. Then we'll never be able to escape this mandatory leave..."

Wait… what?

Jane looked up at Saren, surprised from what he just said. Escape?

"What are you talking about?" she asked, and watched him chuckle as his mischief was discovered.

"We have two weeks, but once a couple days pass we just take the Sovereign and leave. They never said they'll restrict the ship itself..."

She smiled, putting her hands on her hips as she spoke: "You'd go against the Council?"

"We wouldn't go against them. They did not specify the Citadel to be the place of our mandatory leave.." he said casually, and as the lift doors swooshed open he stepped out, not even looking at her as he left her there. She skipped after him to keep up.

"But until then, what will you do?"

"I have some business matters to tend to. You'd do well to get that examination done as soon as possible. They were right about that part."

"Hpmfh!" she snorted, suddenly realizing she has to see a doctor again. She hated every examination, and having gone through an injury that took a month to heal, she wasn't even a bit of eager to go to a doctor again. "I already saw a doctor, isn't that enough?"

Saren turned back and was now in front of her.

She looked at him with those almond shaped blue eyes, curious to see what will happen next. Her hair was dangling about her shoulders as she stopped with him, and he suddenly had the urge to take a strand of that hair and hush it from her face. But he quickly realized they were in public, so instead he just said what he wanted without moving a limb:

"Yes, but you haven't seen _their_ doctor yet. They don't trust anything apart from their own people. If I were them, I would do the same thing." he said, looking deep into her eyes "And you need to take care of your health."

"Yeah, you're right." she smiled at him "I'll go."

* * *

Sparatus wasn't happy at all: "We should've locked down that ship as well. Giving them a mandatory leave will not stop them from getting the hell off the station, and you know it too!"

"Don't you think locking their ship as a reward for saving the galaxy is a bit suspicious?" Tevos asked with an expecting look in her eyes. Sparatus was going back and forth in the room like a crazed animal, but she was already bored with the topic. "They need rest, they've been out on the field for months, but if we lock them up it will only make them agitated with us."

"You're too soft..." the turian said, stopping in his march around the room and turning to the asari Councilor. "But Saren isn't. They're not going to stay on the station just because we said so, and then we'll never be able to monitor them properly."

Tevos took a deep breath in her frustration, but she still stepped to the turian Councilor. She reached up to adjust the collar on his robe. "Why do you even want to monitor them?"

He gently grabbed her arms to stop her from fidgeting with his clothes as he said: "Udina has been increasingly annoying with his humanity topic, and Saren and Shepard are the first turian and human who work together publicly since the First Contact war." he murmured, leaning closer to Tevos who stood his gaze "They will be in the public eye. Many things can go wrong here, and if any of those things should happen, I want to be the first to know."

Their faces were inches away from each other.

"You're worrying too much." Tevos murmured into his face while wrapping her arms around his neck. "I did not get rid of Valern finally to listen to your worrying..."

He smiled as he caught her scent. "You're right."

They shared a kiss and moved towards the bed.

* * *

The day passed with running around arranging stuff, and the next was spent at the doctor for Jane. Obviously everything was fine with her, which she already knew, but there was still one lab result she was waiting for that would come only the next morning. Until then she couldn't speak to the Council about it, and all of her other things were settled already so she really didn't have anything to do.

And they needed to relax indeed. She wanted to go back to the field, sure, but if they were already here, they might as well have some fun while it lasts.

So she drove to the Spectre office where Saren went earlier that day to work out some business matters with Noveria. She was so upbeat, in a mode to go to town, and she figured Saren wouldn't mind the company either. They got really used to each other during the last couple months, they always found something to do on the ship, even when they had other possibilities. She enjoyed his company, his cold but cheeky demeanor… she was curious if he also wanted to go out a bit.

She knocked on the office door.

She heard his voice as he answered, and she stepped in and found him sitting at a desk in front of a computer. He was buried in work, closely looking at something.

The cold light of the screen lit up his face, his grey plates and his bright blue eyes that mirrored the contents of the screen in front of him. He did not look up when she entered.

"Hey" she greeted, coming closer to the desk, looking for his attention.

"Jane" he nodded, not moving his eyes from the screen.

"I'm done with everything, so I'm free from now on" she said, leaning on the desk.

"Good" came the absent-minded answer from him, his focus still not on her.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, with an irritated look on her face as she stood above him. Was he really this busy? "I know I'm a bit trigger happy and I do love my work, but you're no better, I can see." she teased him, trying to get his attention "How long have you been sitting here?"

"Couple hours" he replied, no expression, still not paying full attention.

She started to seriously think the Council was right. It was the morning when they separated after their daily training, and it was now the early evening and he was still sitting at the same spot. They were doing this all the time on the ship too. Get up, train, then work on tactics, the ship, requisition, weapon improvement, making plans to flush out their targets or whatever they could possibly think of, until they passed out from exhaustion.

But they were on a mandatory leave now, and she just realized this second how badly they needed it. Especially him. So she switched into next gear to get his attention.

She went around the desk to his side, and shoved a heap of papers with her hands out of the way, and without waiting for his reaction she jumped on the desk so she was now sitting on it next to his computer, her legs crossed, her hands blocking the console.

"Earth calls Saren!" she teased, looking at him from the top of the table.

He froze for a second, only his eyes widening in shock. He was not expecting that.

She now had his full attention… her plan worked.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, still sitting in the chair, looking at the young spectre usurping his desk.

"Trying to talk to you" came the reply accompanied with an amazing, wide smile from her "You need to get out of here!"

"I have a company to take care of.." he retaliated "I can't run around from party to party like you want to!"

"I don't want to _party_ " she emphasized, her feet dangling in front of him. He cursed the day he took in this woman. "Maybe have some food, drinks and see if this city has some fun places… Come on, you need to relax too!"

She was so enthusiastic… her eyes were sparkling. And she was right, they needed to let go a bit, but the work was just too much. He had no time for this.

"No." he replied, stern.

"Saren. If you don't rest, your performance will suffer." she said, this time completely serious, trying to appeal to him, knowing full well he was a perfectionist. And it seemed like it worked, because in a second, a dark spark appeared in his eyes, and he got up from his chair. Her mouth started to curl into a smile, but it went away immediately.

With one move he was in her face, his talons on the desk on her sides as he leaned in, looking deep into her eyes. Her back arched as she leaned back from the surprise. Even as she was sitting on the table with him leaning in, he was giant compared to her, and she felt her heart beating in her throat.

The air was completely knocked out of her.

"I'm busy." he purred, a low growl escaping his chest as he spoke, his silver eyes taking over her mind. His voice was smooth, not at all aggressive… it moved something in her. She saw his pupils widen in a matter of a second, and his noseplates move as he caught her scent.

She sat there, frozen, her eyes locked with his, and she heard his talons scratch the surface of the desk. She felt his weight on the table through his arms, and felt his clean, fresh scent that now lingered around her. Their faces were so close to each other, it disoriented her suddenly.

A long moment later he removed his talons from the table, and with a swift move he lifted her, taking her from the desk to put her down like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"You just rot here, then!" she said, furious suddenly, then she turned and left the office.

* * *

When she closed the door behind her, she leaned her back to it and let out a long, ragged exhale. The same feeling coursed through her that she felt when they were dancing back on Proctor's party, but this time it was stronger and sudden, as if her insides were thrown in a blender. All that burned in her mind was the look on his face, his eyes, the insane shape of his mandibles…

"Jane?"

She almost jumped from the scare, she was so buried in her own mind she did not notice someone was here. She looked up, disheveled.

"Are you all right?" Nihlus asked, stepping to her to see what was wrong.

"Yes!" she said immediately, gaining her composure back, concentrating on her manners instead of the turian back in the room behind her. "It's just that my head hurts."

"Oh..." the spectre reacted with a face of disbelief, but decided not to push it "Is Saren in there? I heard you're back and I figured we could get some drinks."

"He is" she replied "But don't even bother. He's glued in there. I wanted to get him out to relax a bit too, but it's hopeless."

Nihlus remained silent, thinking for a second.

"...Do you want to come with me?" he asked "It's his loss if he misses the fun.."

Her back straightened.

"You know what? You're right. If he doesn't want to relax, it's his problem." she replied, sighing her frustration out, then they turned and left.

* * *

Saren sat back down into his chair.

He wanted to make his point by getting up close, just as she did by jumping on his table, but the moment he got close to her, his mind went completely blank. She gasped from the surprise when he leaned in… and he was sure he heard her heart leap.

He still felt her cherry scent in his nose… and even her back arched when he leaned in.

He sank in his chair as his thoughts raced.

He looked at the clock, it was 8 already. He suddenly realized he spent the whole day sitting in this freaking chair… He stood up.

She was right, and she jumped on his desk to show him.

He completely forgot about his work as he marched out of the office.


	17. Taste

**Hey! Sorry for the skipping last week, on top of work-stress, I needed lots of calm time to get across what I want in this chapter, so that is why it took so long. Please know that even if I get a bit late sometimes, I will never abandon this fanfic till I finish it. Hope you still read it, please do let me know if you like it :) I really enjoyed writing this chapter... I hope you'll enjoy it too :D**

* * *

He didn't even know what he was doing, or where he was going.

Jane could've gone anywhere, with anyone, and he just ran out of the office looking for her without any destination. As he ran out of the embassies he realized how purposeless he was. He was too proud to message her where she was, and after a minute of thinking while going through the levels in the elevator, he changed his mind. What was in this girl that broke his concentration so badly he can't go back to work now… What was in her that made him run after her so suddenly?

Probably the fact that she was the only person he could talk to without his mind exploding from either boredom or annoyance. The whole world irritated him as always, as he watched the dumb crowds of the station flow around.

Maybe he was a bit overworked.

He decided to take a look at the bar Nihlus was going off about the other week when he learned they'll be back at the Citadel. He told Nihlus he wasn't going on a drinking session with him back then, and he still didn't have the patience for him now. But without him, maybe he could take a look. After all, a nice calm drink never hurt him before.

* * *

Nihlus went in before Jane, showing her the interior. "This is it." he started "I told Saren about this place, but he wasn't interested. He has no taste in these things."

They entered a bar large enough to qualify for a club, but without a conventional dancefloor. Multiple bars welcomed people from all over the station: a booming crowd at this night of the week.

"Woah, this place is huge!" Jane commented, following the turian to one of the circle bars close to the entrance. They settled down, and as they did she looked around. The walls, the people, the ceiling, it was all so spacious and lively. It was a place to have good fun while chatting away, getting tipsy and getting to know random people, only to forget about them later on when going to the next place to dance the night away.

But she wasn't feeling it somehow.

She wanted to relax, but she wanted Saren to be here as well. She got so used to that cold look, that strong silhouette always being around her, but it was clear that he wasn't going to be here with her tonight.

"Are you alright?" the turian asked, waving to the bartender to come serve them. She fell out of her thoughts and looked at him with a smile:

"Of course."

"Saren's an idiot for missing this."

"I'm not sure what you expected. Or what I expected..." she explained "Going out isn't his forte."

Nihlus laughed, his face relaxed "Yeah, imagine him dancing around on the floor, completely drunk."

She laughed, imagining the act in her mind. Not in a million years would that happen, she thought. In the meantime their drinks came, and they toasted.

"So what are you doing nowadays?" she asked Nihlus, who just shrugged.

"The brilliant idea of auditing all spectre requisitions popped into the Council's mind recently, so I've been their pawn in that for some time now." he started, sipping his pink drink "Special requisitions are a lot less regulated than regular ones, so it requires revisiting a bit more often. And since I've been in most jobs and places already, they chose me to do it."

"So you're still administrating, basically." she said as she rolled her eyes teasingly. Was he doing any field work at this point?

"Someone has to support your rampages, Jane..." he fired back at her with a sly smile.

"But aren't you bored here?" she asked suddenly, with honest curiosity. She could not imagine being tied to a station doing paperwork.

"The Citadel has a lot of ways to have fun, you know..." he started, leaning towards her and raising his hand to point in the direction opposite of the entrance "See those women there?"

Three human ladies sat a couple tables away from their bar, shooting looks in their direction, occasionally giggling to each other.

"They've been watching since we sat down, and I'm pretty sure they're not looking at you..." he purred next to her ear as he leaned over, sending a wave in the direction of the girls, who suddenly all waved back at him. "Human women _love_ turians."

Jane looked at him in a scolding fashion: "Somehow I always knew you were a player, Nihlus.."

He showed a cheeky smile. "Maybe because I am."

As he turned to look back at her, he caught a glimpse of a very familiar silhouette in the background at the entrance, just standing there, staring. Saren melted into the crowd dressed in his usual black robe, only the blue of his eyes were shining sharply, looking directly at Nihlus, as if he wanted to kill him right then and there.

He must've seen him when he leaned over Jane.

Nihlus couldn't even remove his previous smile, he was immediately amused. The great Saren Arterius, looking mad at someone who gets close to his treasure. This was a view. And it was different than last time: then he was annoyed, weirded out, but this time it was something that looked like it was coming from a lot deeper. It was pure, but suppressed frustration.

And he moved, through the tables, through the crowds, seriously, all of the emotion slowly disappearing from his eyes as he hardened his mind not to let Nihlus know how he wanted to butcher him right about now. When he got to the bar, Jane noticed him too as he stopped just above them.

"Saren." Jane whispered, surprise in her voice. "I thought you were _busy_."

"I am, still." he replied to her, his tone as controlled as ever "But a tired mind is no good for quality work."

"It won't kill you if you admit you just want to have some fun, Saren" Nihlus inserted, and his friend's eyes darted to him, sending killer vibes his way.

"It will kill you someday, Nihlus" Saren shot back "You're already too soft for a spectre."

Nihlus just chuckled, not even giving his answer.

"You need another round." Saren observed as he sat down next to Jane, looking at her empty glass "Bartender! A horosk and a whiskey neat for us." He surely knew what Jane's favourite was by now. He then looked at Nihlus "And what do you want..?"

"Brandy."

"...And brandy." he finished the order and while the bartender started preparing their drinks, they started talking.

"I heard you're grounded" Nihlus started "What is the plan?"

The two spectres looked at each other, immediately thinking of their plan of escaping from their mandatory leave, but that was none of Nihlus' concern.

"What makes you think we have anything planned?" Jane asked.

"Saren plans everything, you probably know that better than anyone at this point."

She chuckled and looked at Saren who answered for her: "We're not going to go from party to party with you if that's what you're after."

"I'm sad to hear that" Nihlus joked. A second later their drinks arrived: a small brandy, a single horosk and a whiskey... with ice. Saren looked at the drink and the little ice cubes in it, and saw Jane's eyes lock in on the cubes too. She was disappointed.

He locked eyes with the bartender, who was already frightened by him "She likes it neat. Not with ice."

"I'm sorry I thought-" started the poor guy only to be cut off by the turian:

"I'm positive I said neat." he punctuated the word as his mandibles twitched in a deadly expression "So shut up and bring another one while I'm still asking nicely."

Jane's hand gently touched his arm, making him put the drink back down on the bar "It's fine. I'm okay with it." Their eyes met, and she smiled ever so softly at him. Nihlus' jaw almost dropped as he saw Saren's face loosen up.

"You're lucky." he said to the guy at the bar who sighed, relieved.

"Let's toast!" Jane suddenly offered, taking and raising her whiskey high, and the two turians followed her example. But she only looked at Saren, a half smile on her face "To the death of a crime syndicate."

"Cheers" Saren said as they toasted, and consumed their drinks.

"So how did you do it?" came the question from Nihlus.

"Didn't do anything ground-breaking, really" explained Jane "The bitch practically gave it up herself when she locked Saren into her server room that allowed him to shut down her whole network… then Saren's bloodthirst just finished the job."

Saren raised his eyebrow "You say that like your rampage through a level of offices didn't make her shit herself..."

"Wasn't it you who filled up the whole building with tiny bombs?" she retaliated "So who's bloodthirsty now?"

"I'm not bloodthirsty. I make plans, and if someone is retarded enough to stand in my way, that's their problem. Your biotics on the other hand are a direct health hazard." he said, a sly smile beginning to curl on his face.

"Says Mr. " _We should've killed them all"_!" Jane laughed, and Saren leaned on his elbows on the bar, satisfied as their engage entertained him.

All the while Nihlus just looked at them, baffled. It was like in a second they fell into their own little world, like he wasn't even there. They bounced off each other so naturally… and that evil smile on Saren's face as he got lost in looking at his partner was something he didn't see before.

He eventually stood up and announced: "You just keep flirting, I'll see what those girls are made of.." then turned around and left them at the bar.

Jane turned back to face Saren after watching Nihlus approach the women he waved at before. He only paid attention to her, not even glancing in his friend's direction. He downed his drink and cleared his throat from the alcohol hitting it. A silent smile spread across Jane's features.

"I think we chased him away..."

His cold blue eyes shined into hers as he spoke: "Good. I didn't come here to fool around with this idiot of a spectre."

She changed her pose, straightening her back as she moved a leg over the other. "Really?"

"Really."

A second of silence enveloped them, in probably their first moment since months when they didn't have to worry about anything.

"This place is boring. Are you hungry?" he suddenly asked.

"Absolutely."

Nihlus shot a satisfied look in the entrance's direction when he saw the two spectres leave together.

* * *

They were walking down the streets of the Wards, not far from the place they left Nihlus at not long ago. They were looking for a place to have some good food, and this part of the station was filled with plazas, places to drink, dance and eat in.

"How about this place?" Jane asked as she pointed to a small place down the street. They went and stood in front, checking the menu at the entrance of the little, cozy, but exquisite-feeling restaurant.

"This place looks fine, they have everything, highest quality." Saren noted, looking at the quarian, human, asari, turian, and all kinds of list of food groups, most of them cultural specialities "This will do us good."

They went in, got a table and started choosing their dishes out. They ordered drinks while waiting for the food. When they brought out their usual drinks and they toasted, Saren suddenly looked at her:

"Why did you leave with that idiot Nihlus of all people?"

She almost spit her whiskey out.

What kind of question was that exactly?

"What do you mean?" she asked back "He wanted to have some drinks and you basically kicked me out. It was the perfect opportunity." she moved the drink in her hand, watching his reaction. It was a mix of annoyance and ignorance. "You don't like that?"

He looked resentful. "Nihlus is a fool. I thought you had better taste than that."

"Ha!" she laughed, loud "Like you have excellent taste?"

They brought their food out.

They both ordered full meat, and when the waiter placed that giant rib in front of Saren, Jane was mesmerized. That piece of meat looked perfectly roasted, juicy and flavourful, with a crimson crust all over it. Saren's eyes practically sparked up as he looked at it, then he looked at Jane with a mischievous expression: "I have excellent taste, yes."

Then they brought her steak out too, which was a pretty, large cut as well that looked just as beautiful as Saren's piece, if not better.

"I guess we're even then." she said, and their eyes met again. They started devouring their food like they hadn't eaten anything for years.

"And what is that?" Saren asked, looking at her steak as she stuffed it in her mouth.

"It's wagyu beef steak, one of the finest pieces of meat on Earth… And what's yours?" she asked too, looking at his food.

"It's oac rib" Saren answered in between two large bites. He was completely immersed in his meal "It's a fairly rare meat on Palaven, fit for a spectre."

They smiled.  
Fine food, fine drinks, a quiet place. They both just realized how badly they needed this.

"This is a lot better than that noisy bar." Jane said, savouring her whiskey.

"This is what we deserve." he nodded casually "Nothing less."

She shifted in her seat, feasting her eyes on her food, then her partner. She was upset when he didn't want to come with her earlier, but now it turned out better than she hoped. She was now relaxed, comfortable.

They talked while they ate, about the food, about recent months. They just chatted away with no direction, enjoying the meal and the peace they found themselves in. When they finished and the waiter took their plates away they talked over their drinks, soon realizing they needed another round. That was when an asari approached their table, politely nodding.

"Good evening" she greeted them "I'm Sheina, the owner. We are really humbled that two Council spectres decided to visit us. I hope you are enjoying our service tonight."

"Very much, thank you." Jane nodded back "But it appears we are out of our drinks once again."

A spark appeared in the owner's eyes, followed by a smile.

"Would you care to visit our special bar at the back?" she asked "We have special drinks from all over the galaxy that might interest you."

They looked at each other, both of them nodding.

"Yes, please" she replied.

* * *

They were escorted through a small door to the back of the establishment, that revealed a very private, small bar where they appeared to be the only guests. The bartender greeted them courteously as they took their places next to each other. The bar was decorated with many kinds of drinks and beautiful glasses, reflecting the soft, golden colour of the neon lights going across the room. The bartender started recommending drinks, telling them what they were made of, preparing to mix them right then and there.

Jane was looking at the list of drinks placed on there, and one thing caught her attention:

"What is this _levo-horosk_?" she asked, pointing at the wording on the menu. Saren looked at it too with curiosity. They never heard of that drink before.

"Many beverages cannot be tasted by some races due to the amino acid differences in them" the bartender explained "Our owner researched alien cultures for hundreds of years, and developed a method to create genuine horosk and other drinks safe to drink for species who would not be able to have them otherwise. Levo-horosk for example tastes just like turian horosk, but it's safe for humans and other levo-species to consume."

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she instantly turned to Saren who sat there puzzled.

"Would you like to taste each other's favourite drinks?"

They shared a glance. Saren's eyes were flaming up in excitement as he saw the wide grin on Jane's face. Sharing a small drink to wind down on harder days quickly became one of their rituals in their last couple months together, but they never had any idea about how each other's stuff would taste like.

Somehow all of their worries and thoughts about work went far away in this moment, and all they could think of was this bar, this night, the amazing food and the light music in the background. It was no question they will try these drinks.

"I see that is a yes." the bartender nodded confidently "So what are your favourite drinks?"

The levo-horosk and the dextro-whiskey were poured out in front of them within a minute.

Jane was biting her lip as she looked at Saren who was smelling the whiskey in his hands. They toasted but she held off on drinking, watching the turian's reaction first instead. Saren tasted it, and found a very smoky, earthy flavour clinging onto that harsh alcoholic feeling. His face distorted in a way Jane never saw before: his eyes closed, his mandibles fluttered, and as he swallowed, he breathed out heavily.

It was a very strange feeling, he felt like the alcohol went right into his brain, he felt a pressure under his eyes. Jane laughed, but the turian quickly recovered, and pointed his finger right at her.

"Do it!" he exhaled on a ragged voice.

She stared down at the bright blue drink, and after concluding it had no smell, she went in. It was nothing like she ever tasted before. It was metallic, bitter. Much like electricity in her mouth, confusing her senses and he felt a pinch of menthol in her nose.

It was Saren's turn to chuckle as he looked at her face that went terrified, then completely blank as her features became smoother.

"Woah.." she sighed, her eyebrows raised high, her eyes closed.

"Have some snacks" the bartender offered to both of them "These special brews are a lot stronger than the originals."

"I can't fathom how can you drink that" Saren started, swallowing his nerves.

"I could say the same!" she waved with a hand, still trying to recover from the shock the drink caused her.

"Are you okay?" Saren asked, a certain smoothness in his voice suddenly that she did not notice before. She turned her face towards him, while leaning on the bar, letting her hair fall in front of her.

She looked at him, still fighting the dizziness that overcame her "Yup." she blurted out. Her blue eyes were firing up, in a very similar way to when she was fighting, but without the violence.

He then reached his left arm out, grabbed the barstool she was sitting on at its base, and with one swift move he dragged the stool closer to himself, dragging her as well. She laughed from the notion as she bumped into his shoulder.

"Much better.." he purred, staring right into her eyes. His mandibles pulled away from his face, and she again got lost in that incredible symmetry of his features.

They were both losing control.

"Another!" he called out, slamming his hand on the bar.

"If I fall into a coma, it will be your fault!"

* * *

Saren was standing in the corner of the room, coming back from the bathroom, when he came back to his senses. He had no idea what happened. Everything was blurry from the ceiling to the floor, and his head was like he was up in the clouds, he couldn't even feel the weight of his own body. Other people must've arrived at this place because they weren't alone anymore, some weird, blurry faces moved in the middle of the room where the neon lights were the strongest.

How late was it? How many hours passed? How much did they drink? He had no idea, but he didn't even care.

Especially not when he saw that woman in the centre.

Jane's hair was flowing around in the air as she moved, dancing in delirium with a cigarette in her right hand, sending clouds of smoke into the golden neon lights. His senses honed in on her, and soon all that was in focus was her. He slowly stepped to her, watching her move like water, alone, completely free.

He suddenly appeared in front of her, flat out drunk, the music pumping in his mind. She raised her head at him, and continuing to dance, she stepped closer to him, her bright smile shining at him. The alcohol lit her eyes up and they now only saw Saren.

She forgot she couldn't and wouldn't dance normally, she let go of everything she knew before, and all there was in this world right now was the music, and this giant turian in front of her. The chaos of this unexpected freedom she was feeling overwhelmed her, and she felt Saren's arms wrap around her waist.

He moved with her, pulling her body against him, letting her scent flood his foggy mind. Her hand travelled up his arm, slowly putting her cigarette in his mouth, and soon smoke enveloped them once again.

"You look like a demon in that smoke" she sighed, her voice almost singing the words, so sweet.

"Maybe I am one..." he purred back at her, a low vibration starting in his chest as he instinctively raised a hand and dig his talons into her fiery hair, his claws separating the locks, feeling their softness finally, and he got lost in the sensation.

She was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen in the galaxy.

He saw her eyes burn into his, her lips curl into a wild smile, completely lost in the moment, not caring for anything else. She was free.

Her chest pushed to his and his other hand squeezed her waist.  
She couldn't think, all she felt was his touch on her skin, and he felt her curves press against him. They got closer and closer with every moment, slowly, smiling, crazed by this place.

And it was perfect.

Their moves melted together, their breaths were the same, it felt divine. He got lost in her eyes as her face turned to him, their noses touching so slowly, it felt like an eternity. A craving shot through his body as he wanted nothing more than to kiss her, touch her, make her his in this moment. It came out of nowhere and it poisoned the still sane part of his mind.

What was he doing?

She didn't know. Here he was, tall and strong, holding her like no one ever before, making her insides fire up into oblivion as she felt his talons scratch the skin on her sides. He was perfect, captivating her with his cold charm that trapped the air into her, and made her put her hands on his chest, feeling his smooth robe on his plates. She listened to her instincts and let it happen, let him breathe into her, bringing his mouth to hers, not grasping reality anymore. He was godlike, and she wanted to feel him kiss her, devour her… and get lost in those arms.

She was losing it very fast.

"I'm.." she sighed suddenly, her lips inches away from his "... so drunk.."

He opened his eyes, and just before she could fall, he tightened his grip around her, keeping her up. She laughed, her voice sweet and husky, and her cigarette fell to the ground. Her eyes closed slowly as she was losing her consciousness.

"Come" he said, picking her up in his craze, feeling how weak she felt "You drank too much."

He took a step, then another, and slowly carried her out of this place, leaving behind the night, going straight to the Sovereign.


	18. Tears

**Yeey, back again!**  
 **And the story goes on ;)**

* * *

The Sovereign was dark and cold when Saren entered the bridge, almost crashing into the wall as he came in, drunk enough to lose his balance but still too alert to let Jane out of his hands. The young spectre laid in his arms as he carried her to her room, passed out from the alcohol. As he entered the room he crashed his leg into her bed while letting her go, almost dropping her into the sheets. He eventually regained his balance and let her down gently, then dragged the covers over her. She was completely out by this point, not even moving an inch. He stayed there for a second, watching from far if she was still breathing.

She was. Good. Horosk was a dangerous game but it seemed she won't die from it. He sighed, his brain giving up finally, and he turned to leave.

"Saren…?" he heard from behind his back and slowly turned around, checking if he was so drunk he heard her voice, or if she did indeed call him.

She was there, lying in her bed, reaching her hand out to him, looking for him.

"Jane.." he replied, listening to his instincts as he kneeled down next to her bed, and held her hand.

"I'm wasted..." she purred with a tired smile, half awake, half asleep.

He chuckled at her, mischief looming on his tired face: "Me too."

She let out a small laugh "Gotcha.."

He wanted to stand up, but she squeezed his talons, not letting him go just like that.

"Don't leave."

"This is the Sovereign… I won't be far away." he replied, sliding his hand out of hers.

"Mm.." she purred in agreement, letting him go and he went straight to his own bed, letting them sleep what was left of the night through.

* * *

 _All was blurry, dark, but she felt it clearly._

 _She felt his talon run along her face, tracing the shape of her lips and she opened them slightly for him. He said nothing, but he watched her, his cold blue eyes communicating a secret she couldn't uncover._

 _His nose touched hers, and she felt it, that amazing texture of his plates on her skin. She felt his arms wrap around her, keeping her close, keeping her safe. Wrapped in this cold universe, a shiver ran through her entire body when she felt his breath on her. The electricity between them was unbearable, and he couldn't wait long, he had no choice. She felt drawn to him, dizzy almost as he pressed his lips on hers, his tongue quickly finding its way to hers, causing a shudder in her body that left her unable to move._

 _But he wasn't finished. He moved, kissing along her neck, holding her by her arms, letting her down, towering over her as she felt completely helpless. His tongue ran on her skin, sending waves of shock into her mind. She touched the muscles on those arms that held her, just when he bared his teeth and sank them into her soft skin, letting crimson blood trail out._

" _You're mine now."_

* * *

Jane shot up in her bed into sitting, her eyes wide open as she snapped out of her dream. In an instant she felt sick, and fell right back onto her pillow, letting out a long exhale. It was all just a dream. A weird, extremely sexy dream.

Then it hit her.

Was it a dream?

Where was she?

What happened last night?

She looked around, panicking, but quickly realizing she was in her bed on the Sovereign, alone. Relief hit her, and she laid back, trying to put together her memories from last night. She and Saren went to this nice place to eat, then tasted each other's favourite drinks at the bar in the back… then talked, maybe flirted a bit even. They drank a lot, and then… she couldn't remember exactly. That damned horosk was so strong, it instantly hit her in the head and she had god knows how many of it… but then… another memory came back to her.

His talons were in her hair.

She remembered how amazing it felt, how they danced, how she let loose and let him trace his talons along her waist. It felt like she was in a parallel universe, safe from everything, just the music and the alcohol pumping in her veins.

She felt a sudden sickness in her stomach, but it wasn't from the alcohol. It was because of him. She jumped out of her bed as she realized how they almost kissed, and she instantly ran to her bathroom.

She needed a cold shower. And as the water ran over her body, her mind couldn't escape yesterday.

* * *

Saren opened his eyes.

His first thought was her lips. He sat up as he collected his memories from last night, and he remembered almost everything, apart from how much they drank and what they were talking about all that time. But what came after was as clear in his mind as the sun: they almost shared a kiss… and he would've kissed her if she wouldn't have fainted.

The thought itself was scandalous.

What had gotten into him that he wanted to kiss her? How in hell could he possibly think it was a good idea? She was his partner, another spectre. He couldn't just go and fuck her without any consequences to their partnership or their daily lives.

He stopped dead in his tracks on his way to the bathroom.

Why was he even thinking of hooking up with a _human_ above all?

He entered the shower and opened the tap so fast, the water burst out from the shower head so suddenly, he thought it was going to break.

He hated humans, he despised them since the first contact war, and he simply could not believe what he was thinking. But also he could not stop himself at the moment. She was smart, beautiful and fierce, and she was everything he was looking for in a woman. He took a deep breath standing under the water, and still, a second later he completely forgot about reason.

He finally touched her hair yesterday. And not just touch it, like he did when she was out after their assault on the Librarian, this time he dug into it deep. His talons itched for the sensation again, and his mind quickly got overwhelmed with the memories. How he touched her and hugged her, how incredibly beautiful she was in those moments.

He stopped the water, again deciding to end this. These thoughts will be the death of him, he needed to control them. He got dressed and left his suite, a war in his own mind to push down… whatever this was.

"Ilsa, where's Jane?"

[Spectre Shepard left the deck some time ago. She informed me she was heading to the Embassies.]

Ah yes, her medical results…

He sat down at the bar while waiting for his coffee to brew, and opened up the extranet to look around in the news a bit. He was hoping it would deter his mind from all these thoughts, and for a couple minutes it did, until he happened upon a video article from a couple hours ago:

" _Fresh news: First human spectre Jane Shepard beat an innocent reporter"_

He clicked fast, and saw an embedded video above a very short article detailing what a jerk she was. What did this woman do again…? He thought as he clicked on it, and started watching.

She was stopped at the Embassies entrance, by some Khalisah… not even asking if she wanted to answer any questions, just stepped in front of her with her camera and started asking her questions.

" _Spectre Shepard, please tell us how does it feel to be the first human spectre?"_

Her eyes fired sparks of boredom and frustration into the camera, but she still answered diplomatically:

" _I am honored. To be able to protect the galaxy is the greatest thing that happened to me so far. I will make sure to use the power I was given to help the galaxy."_

This was a very generic, smart answer, showing off her good side. He smiled slightly. Only he knew what hunger was hidden inside of her.

" _You are humble, Shepard. But how do you think such a thing can be achieved with such a terrifying partner by your side?"_

Her eyebrows furrowed. " _Excuse me?"_

" _Saren Arterius is a notoriously dangerous spectre and a turian at the same time. How do you-"_

" _I'm sorry, are you insulting my partner or his species now?"_ she snapped back at the reporter, the fire coming alive in her eyes. Saren snorted from the amusement.

" _I'm not here to insult such a powerful spectre. But rumour has it you two are doing well together.."_

She rolled her eyes. " _Of course we do, we are partners. I'm not sure where this stupid questioning is going."_ She waved her hand in the air.

" _Rumour has it you were seen with Mr. Arterius last night in a pub, sharing some fun together, including alcohol and dancing. Do you have any comments on that?"_

Her eyes turned away from the camera. She clearly doubted why did she stop to answer these shitty questions in the first place.

" _Or do you deny your date?"_

" _My what?"_

" _What do you think the people of Earth will respond all over the galaxy when they learn their first spectre is sleeping with the enemy?"_

Her expression turned dark in a second and it was for all to see watching this video how this got on her very last nerve. She moved so fast the camera couldn't fully catch her as she reached behind the lense and landed a punch right into the guts of the reporter.

 _"Shittiest reporter I've seen in a while"_ was all she said after hitting her, then she just walked away. The video ended and Saren smiled to himself. She must've been really tired to lose it like this, but it felt good seeing the reporter getting wrecked… he himself hated the media and tried to stay away as much as it was possible for a spectre. Well, it appeared Jane was going in the opposite direction.

* * *

Jane went to provide her medical results straight to the Council. When she finally got in after that fiasco with the Westerlund news reporter, she happily slammed the PDA on Sparatus' desk who was the only member of the Council currently in, and left it there for him to see. She didn't wait a second for the Councilor, she stormed out of the office as fast as she arrived.

She rode the elevator down to the Presidium, then took a shuttle to the Wards, and started randomly walking around, as a means of letting her mind switch off a bit.

That goddamn reporter…. It frustrated her so much.. but there was something else on her mind too.

She wanted to see Saren again. She wasn't sure why, but she felt something happened last night that did not happen before. Something, that made so much sense in her mind, it almost scared her.

She should've been creeped out by it, she should've regretted last night, but she didn't. She wished it didn't end. These thoughts were wrong, she knew, since not only was Saren possibly the most dangerous turian in the galaxy, but he was also her spectre partner, and anything happening between them could be detrimental to their mission.

But he was everything she wanted.

She thought of his eyes, his mandibles, those amazing scars and his build. His cold demeanor that was the complete opposite of hers, and that mischievous fire that was deep deep down inside of him, that only came out when he was fighting. He was strong, resilient and intelligent, and never tried to change her.

He was perfect.

She was completely buried in her thoughts, so much so that she didn't even see where she was going. When she returned to reality, she was at the lower Wards, almost at Chora's Den, which wasn't the most luxurious place.

She decided to turn back and go back to the ship, and she cut through a tiny alley to make her journey a bit faster. When she exited the alley however, a hand stopped her.

"... Jane?" she heard, a voice so familiar to her, her insides shuddered.

A man was standing next to her, leaning to the wall of the alley, looking at her with a creepy expression. It was an older human man with bright grey eyes and caramel skin, dressed in a rugged brass coloured armor. He had a cigarette in his mouth that curved into an ugly smile, creating wrinkles on his thin face.

"Derrick?" she exhaled, her eyes locked on the man in front of her, thousands of memories coming back to her all at once, and neither of them good ones. She felt her lungs shrink as the nerves strangled her from the inside, and she immediately took a step back.

"Don't be afraid my love" he growled "I thought you'd be happy to see old Derrick!"

"Get away from me!" she hissed, turning to leave the man right where he was. She knew this man, and he brought up memories she buried long ago, and even the thought of them shocked her to her core.

He followed her with his eyes as she turned her back on him, and shouted right after her:

"I wonder what the galaxy would say if the truth about their beloved spectre, Shepard, would come to light!"

She stopped.

It was like the fear she felt suddenly washed away, and turned into burning rage. She turned back around and faced the man, who was now smiling with satisfaction.

"Listen, you rat" she started, her eyes sparkling at him with a killer rage "Your little games won't hurt me anymore. So I suggest you disappear into the hole you crawled out of, or you'll forever regret ever talking to me!"

All his reply was laughing, loud and gruesome, turning into aggressive coughing.

"If you think you'll ever get rid of the Reds… you're wrong my dear. Now that I know where you are… I can come visit your pretty face whenever I want."

She was very close to vomiting right then and there, and when the man took a step closer to her, her whole body froze for a second.

"I told you once already..." he continued "You'll never be free of us."

* * *

Saren got back to the Sovereign late at night. He was working all day in the spectre offices, handling Binary Helix matters. He made sure to bury himself in all that work to avoid his mind going back to the same place over and over again.

It wasn't really working.

He tried his best to stay away from her. She was his partner, and as much as he wanted her somehow, he couldn't let himself go. Their mission was at stake, their existence. A couple months ago he couldn't imagine even talking to a human, but since he met her, she was the exception. He never enjoyed the fights, the missions, the downtime as much as he did now, now that she was here. He couldn't cling onto the thought anymore that she was a human and he hated humans. It simply didn't matter to him anymore, and it made everything all the more harder. He couldn't believe the thoughts he was having, he couldn't believe how soft he has gotten. But he couldn't stop himself…. He was cursing his emotions.

But when he got back to the ship he couldn't find Jane anywhere. He looked for her everywhere, the lounge, the cockpit, even her room, but she was nowhere.

"Ilsa, where..."

[She is in the bowels, at the drive core.]

He looked at his feet in surprise. The drive core? What the hell was she doing there? He decided to check it out for himself. He had no idea how awkward this conversation is going to be because of last night, but he also didn't really care. He went to the elevator, and with it to the engineering deck. He passed through the labyrinth of corridors, and went straight to the drive core.

When the door slid open, revealing the silver core of the Sovereign, he saw her: sitting with her legs brought up, her arms wrapped around them while her face was hanging, looking at the floor. When the door closed it made a slight noise, and she slowly raised her head up. Her eyes looked at him with a dull shine, her face pale. He's never seen her like this before, and he completely forgot about last night suddenly.

He stepped and crouched down in front of her, looking right into her eyes.

"What happened?" he asked in a low voice, it was clear that something was not ok.

She put on a very strange face… her eyes were sparkling, but her mouth was tense, and she started breathing heavily through her nose, her skin going even paler than before. She was doing her very best to hold back her emotions from manifesting on her face, and it felt like she was made of stone in the process. She was working hard not to show a side of her to him, and he clearly saw it.

She was holding back tears. He knew.

"I… no..." she whispered, squeezing the air through her teeth in the effort. She couldn't show this to him. These things he never tolerated. She knew he was never touched by any woman's screaming or crying, and he deserved a partner who was a lot stronger than her. She felt ashamed for what she was, how weak she was, and she knew how alienating this must have been for him.

But a low growl started in his chest, and he said in that deep baritone of his:

"Don't hold it back. Let it out."

And he needed only this to break through that wall.

He watched as over the course of a second her face changed, her eyes watered as giant tears started rolling down on her face, and her whole body started shivering. She was now quickly catching for air, her crying taking over her entire being, resulting in a sound that he never before heard in his life. It was a cry of sadness and fear, tearing into his bones almost, trapping the air in his lungs. His mandibles clicked as he watched her cry out, with a face of utter devastation.

He immediately extended his arms out and wrapped her shaking body in his arms, holding her head to his chest. Her arms wrapped around his waist, and she clawed into his dark blue robe. Her heart was beating so fast he thought it was going to explode.

He had no idea what put her in this state.

She was strong, explosive and active all the time, this was not normal for her. This shaking, this outburst of emotion… something must've caused this, and he couldn't imagine right away what could have reduced this strong woman into these tears.

"That's it..." he guided her, stroking her hair as she breathed for air.

All he knew right now that whoever did this, was going to pay for it with their lives.

"I'm sorry" she breathed, the flow of tears slowly ending as she pulled away from his chest. She remained in his embrace and they sat on the floor, their arms intertwined.

"Who did this to you?" he asked, his voice almost shaking from the fury. His eyes were ablaze with anger.

"I'm not the woman you think I am..." she shook her head, quickly breathing for air "... I was part of a gang when I was young. The Reds… It wasn't my choice. They caught me..." she said, the tears coming again "... I did what I had to, to stay alive. I ... " she cried "...I'm a criminal."

He couldn't register what he heard.

He remembered her telling him, when they were up on the ship's shell, that she never got to see the views of the Earth… because she grew up on the streets, in the dirt. He never imagined that this was what she meant.

"They made me… do many things. I never wanted to..." she sobbed, her machine gun sentences barely understandable from the tears streaming down her face "I wish I was dead."

His face distorted, anger taking over him from surprise, and he looked down at her.

"Stop that!" he reprimanded her "You're not a criminal."

"They were smuggling guns… " she continued "And children were everywhere… they made us do everything, I couldn't stop it, Saren..."

So that is why she hated criminals so much… that is why she was so desperate to burn the underworld of the galaxy. Because it almost destroyed her too..

"How did you get out?" he asked, idle as he wrapped his arms around her once again. Her tears died down after a minute, when she said with a faint smile:

"I joined the military."

"Why are you crying about it now, then?" he asked.

"They found me again.." she whispered "Saren I can't… I can't..."

He enveloped her once again in his embrace, sighing angrily as she let him stroke her hair to calm her down. It seemed this hit her really hard, because she was shaking again in panic, completely paralyzed by the memory of her past.

Here was the strongest, most beautiful woman he's ever seen, reduced to shambles… he could only imagine the atrocities they committed against her, the damage they caused her. How much they took from her...? How much did they do that it hit her so hard, she collapsed from it even now? What kind of childhood did she had to push through?

"And where are they?" he asked without a second of hesitation.

She thought for a second, her tears somewhat stopping. "They're everywhere mostly… but their base is on Earth."

His eyes narrowed, the darkness in them expanding. His mind went blank from rage, and there was only one goal in front of him now. His voice became hellish as a growl escaped his chest when he hissed:

"Then we'll go to Earth."

She looked up at him. "What?"

"We'll seek them out and I will destroy them all for you, one by one, and tear their bodies to millions of pieces. They will get the suffering they signed on for when they laid a finger on you.."

She looked puzzled.

"You don't hate me?" she asked. His blue eyes darted to her, his talons still in her hair.

"Idiot."

"But the Council-" she started again.

"They can go to hell for all I care." he replied as he stood up, bringing her with him. They started to the entrance of the drive core, leaving this room behind. "Now gather yourself, we have another war to win."


	19. View

**Hey...**  
 **Finally, this next one is ready. Sorry that you had to wait. I was extremely busy, and just couldn't get to my fanfiction. I have more time now and I hope it stays like this cuz I'm nowhere near done with this fic :) So nice to be back.**  
 **Let me know if you like it!**  
 **I hope I can post the next one as soon as possible! :)**

* * *

Jane stood at the bar in the lounge of the Sovereign, looking at a glass of water in her hands. They were en route to Earth, arriving in a few hours.

She was still overwhelmed by what happened at the drive core. She just cried and cried, like never before in her life. She never let it slip this bad ever. It was her lowest, her weakest, her most pathetic. And still, somehow, he didn't shame her for it. He didn't ignore her, he didn't hate her.

Instead he accepted her for what she was.

No one ever did that to her before.

When Saren entered the lounge, he saw a very zoned out Jane at the bar. She was just standing there, sighing to herself, like she was stuck in time. He watched her from the entrance, not making a sound.

He remembered her tears and it started a very strange feeling inside of him.

She suffered just as much as he did in life, and he didn't even notice it before. She was so cheerful usually, but now it seemed an eternal gloom was above her head. It was an eerily familiar feeling to him. It woke something up in him.

He stepped to her from behind and stopped at the edge of the bar.

"Can't sleep?"

She slowly turned around to face him.

They didn't notice, they couldn't, but their expressions were the same. The same silent doom lingering in their eyes.

"Nope." she whispered, squeezing the glass in her hand.

He didn't want to ask what the gang did to her, but she looked at him, giving in even without a request.

"I never knew my parents. The first thing I remember from my childhood is the dirt of the streets. I couldn't go to shelters, they would always beat us and steal from us there." she started, now looking at the floor again. "That was how they found me. They threatened me and others to help with their plans, otherwise they were going to kill us. So we helped. We stalked the cops, stole information on the streets, just trying to get by." her voice faded a bit "It was the worst ten years of my life."

"And still, look where you are now." was all he said, slowly, with a deep, unwavering confidence.

A faint smile appeared on her face. She put down her water, and stepped to him.

"On the Sovereign.." she said, smiling, still finding joy in this little pun.

"With me." he corrected, looking deep into her eyes.

Her expression changed. The tired smile disappeared, and she was just looking at him, at those silver eyes, a shine in them that was as solid as the toughest rock in the world. She suddenly remembered why they teamed up, that look in his eyes when they first met. She thought she knew what she was getting herself into, but now she realized she knew nothing back then. She never could've predicted this feeling inside of her, this thought that was now pressing in her mind.

"It wasn't a coincidence that we met, was it?" she asked.

His reply was instant, without hesitation: "Chance is for weaklings." He raised a hand, a single talon combing into the hair by her face, brushing it aside a bit "Sleep. You need your strength back."

She remained there for a moment, nodded, then left, just like that.

* * *

She went into her room, and absent mindedly opened up her omni-tool, still thinking about what he said. She was happy and sad at the same time, it was very confusing, right up until her thoughts were disturbed by her omni-tool chirping. She didn't check it for a half a day at this point, and now she saw she had a new mail.

She opened it up.

" _ **From: Laiel Sparatus**_

 _ **To: Jane Shepard**_

 _ **Title: Incident**_

 _Shepard,_

 _Spectres protect the fragile peace of the galaxy, by any means necessary. You are provided tools, insight and trust to act above the law to protect the stability of our space. This does not include physical assault on the media._

 _The Council officially distances itself from your violent behaviour towards reporter Khalisah Bint Sinan Al-Jilani. See to it that this does not repeat in the future._

 _Otherwise the Council will be forced to take measures to take the matter into their own hands._

 _ **Councilor Laiel Sparatus, On behalf of The Citadel Council**_ "

She threw the tool off onto her bed.

Her old gang found her, now Sparatus is threatening her… she just about had enough. It was evident that her freedom lay with Saren only, and it made her think. She always knew this, when she joined him and when they hunted down Proctor's organization, and even when they decided to party the night away.

She lied down, turning into her sheets, the face of the turian floating around in her mind as she slowly drifted to sleep.

* * *

It was a cold night in London, on Earth, the snowflakes slowly fell on the ground, barely gathering together as most of them melted in the mud of the streets. The small streets were empty at this time of night, only two figures stood on a corner, sharing a quick look. They were dressed in black, especially the taller one, trying to hide his turian stature.

"This planet is really wet… is it always like this?" Saren asked, an annoyed expression on his face under his hood. A turian on Earth was not exactly usual, so they decided to disguise him as best as they could.

"Of course not.." Jane replied, returning her attention to the small door on the other side of the street.

"Are you ready?"

"No." she said in a dark voice without looking at him.

"They're just petty criminals."

She hesitated for a minute as she digested his words. They seemed to be just enough, as she soon started in the direction of the door. This was the hideout of everything dark in her life, and it will all end now.

They didn't speak a word after this.

It was all a blur for her. A blur of fear and pain.

They went through the whole base, and she just missed it. The rage, the sadness was so deep in her, the only thing she could see was Saren, and his moves. They were what centered her mind. He guided her as he tore through doors and men, mitigating her slower moves with his explosive strength.

He watched her. She was different, slower to react, her moves not as fluid as always, her attention divided between crushing down the unsuspecting thugs and her own thoughts. He watched and helped, moving through the criminals like a hot knife through butter. They got deeper and deeper into the lair, and as they did, her fear slowly turned into a fighting instinct he would always recognize. Not even an hour passed and they got through the whole base, essentially getting rid of the gang leaders one by one, all of them being simple, puny criminals.

She didn't understand.

These men forced her to become a criminal to survive her childhood, they tainted her memories.. But now they all fell, like worthless scum before her legs. They fought, cursed, but had no chance against Saren, who quietly supported her all along, without the tiniest expression on his face.

This should have been hard, but it was easy.

And when the last one of them was down, she just froze. She looked at the floor, not saying a word. It was over.

"Jane?" came from Saren, who stepped closer to her, but she didn't hear him.

Her heart was beating so fast, all she heard was her blood pumping in her ears. Suddenly, it seemed the world was twisting, and the shapes of the room got blurred.

It was over.

A second later she collapsed.

* * *

She was light in his arms.

He carried her back to the Sovereign from the Red's base. It was no wonder she collapsed, after all she probably didn't sleep a minute last night, she didn't seem to be eating, and she was acting weird all throughout their assault on the base. After all, for the better part of her childhood she was basically a slave to these thugs, and getting rid of that must've overwhelmed her.

He laid her down onto her bed and detached her armor so she could sleep more comfortably. Once done, and she was just in her black under armour, he sat down next to her.

He went deep into his thoughts for a minute. He had one more thing he needed to do before they left this wretched planet.

[Saren, the Council calls again. Should I patch them through?] came from Ilsa suddenly, but he didn't even look up. He didn't give a damn about the Council right about now.

"No." he answered, looking at Jane's sleeping silhouette "Pull out of the dock, and go. We have a place to go to." he said.

* * *

She awoke amidst some fluffy pillows, in her room. She tried to think of what happened and how she got here… that was when the base came into her mind.

She had dealt with the demons now, and the freedom she felt was overwhelming, as it was only sinking into her mind now. She got up, took a shower, assuming Saren had brought her back to the ship after her mind gave in. But she saw things a bit more clearly now. And she needed to see him.

So she got herself into her jeans, and went to look for him. It didn't take long: he was in the lounge, reading something while sitting on the couch.

"Hey" she greeted.

"Hey" he looked up, his expression blank "Better now?"

"Yeah.." she stepped closer, looking at him. He was dressed in a casual black robe as usual, just watching her, waiting for what she has to say. He sat there like nothing happened, like it was just another afternoon in their usual life. His eyes bright silver as always, an expectant look in them.

He did exactly what she needed. He made sure she'd come here and face her fear, and silently guided her through it. He was protecting her… which nobody did for her before. And now he was just sitting there, like it was all natural.

Everyone warned her about him, about how violent and cold hearted he was, which he absolutely was… but that silent look on his face never made her afraid. It was the look that watched her, that helped her get free of her fears. It was that look that made her excited about their missions, that drove her to do better every time, to become stronger, to become fiercer. And he did this without even saying a word.

She just stood there, not even sure how to put her thoughts into words. But before she could open her mouth, Saren seemed to have noticed her hesitation. His mandible moved into a small smile as he said:

"Let me show you something." he stood up, passing her and stood in the elevator. She followed him, not sure where. They rode the lift, and he led her to the hangars.

"Where are we going?" she asked but he didn't reply. "Wait, why aren't the engines going? Are we not on orbit already?"

"Not exactly." he said, and he pressed the console, and the hangar door opened.

They weren't in the city anymore.

She saw white sand on the ground beneath the hangar door, and suddenly didn't know what to think. Saren stepped down, into the sand and looked at her as a sign to follow him. She did, and once she stepped out of the ship, her breathing almost stopped from the surprise.

They were at the ocean.

The feet of the Sovereign sank into the coarse sand of the coast, as the ship rested there, with Jane stepping out from the back of it. All she saw was the glistening water and the sun, and Saren standing in the middle of it.

"What..." she breathed, catching up to him, looking around, her face becoming brighter with every second.

"It is the ocean." Saren started, looking at her surprised expression "You said you never saw the Earth, because of those bastards. 71% of your planet is water… I should imagine showing you one of its oceans would be quite representative."

She looked at him, and a giant smile appeared on her face. Without thinking she suddenly left him behind and started running to the water. She stopped at the edge of it, just looking at it for a second before kicking her shoes off and stepping into it, going deeper and deeper. She ran into it until it covered her hips, when she stopped, and looked up at the enormous body of water all around her. She never saw the ocean before and she couldn't begin to describe how giant and quiet it was. She breathed in that salty air, and just let her mind go.

Suddenly her childhood demons were no more, and there was nothing standing in her way. She was free of the memories, the fear, and it felt like all of that was so distant now. She knew now why it was so easy to get rid of those thugs… They were never strong, they were just preying on the weak, and she was a lot stronger now. She became a spectre, and she had a mission. To rid the world of the sea of criminals it's filled with, to destroy the underside of this galaxy. And she was the partner of possibly the most powerful spectre.

Saren.

He had a dark past too, just like her. He also went through the suffering, the loneliness, the feeling of having nowhere to belong. She never in a million years thought that she would end up with him. She never knew that this would happen. This feeling that her heart was on the Sovereign now, with him. This was the moment she realized that they had to meet, there was a reason for all of that. Something she didn't understand, but she felt it.

Their doom was the same.

She turned back to him, motioning with her head for him to come.

He shook his head slowly, a cold demeanor as always. That's right, turians hated deep waters… They weren't good at swimming.

"Come on!" she waved, smiling. A moment later he saw the turian roll his eyes, and eventually starting to step into the water. She barely blinked before he was in front of her, standing in the ocean, looking at her.

"You happy?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.

She laughed at how he hated the water, but her laugh eventually quieted down and turned into a warm smile. She looked at him, amazed by how tall he was. His mandible twitched a bit, letting her know he wasn't sure why she was smiling at him now.

"I'm happy." she nodded. The wind blew into her hair, and he somehow got lost in looking at her, as her eyes mirrored the ocean around them.

"Next time, just warn me in advance if you have skeletons in the closet..." he said suddenly.

"There won't be a next time. I ran out of skeletons." she said, quoting him from before. His mandibles relaxed:

"Good..." His voice was warm, deep and resounding as he replied, his eyes locked on hers. The two spectres just stood there for a couple seconds, while the ocean was waving beneath their feet. She then slowly, instinctively moved into his embrace, burying her face into his chest, and he moved his hand to lightly touch her hair, his talon getting tangled in it as the wind blowed into it.

"Thank you." she whispered.

He looked into the sun above her head, and at the ocean behind her back.

It was indeed a nice view.


	20. Rogue

**aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa**  
 **I love writing this!**  
 **I hope you like reading it too!**

* * *

Saren and Jane got back on the Sovereign after seeing the ocean, and decided to head back to the Citadel.

"You got an email from Sparatus?" Saren asked on their way to the cockpit after she mentioned it to him.

"Yes" Jane started "Threatening to take desperate measures if I don't calm down."

His mandible twitched, he was clearly irritated. "He's flexing. Don't even pay attention to him."

"I don't" she replied, shrugging "But it does bother me that we're supposed to be spectres, and the Council still sticks its nose into everything.."

He couldn't agree more.

While it was logical to send Jane off to a trusted doctor after her injury and even giving them leave, but they also restricted them at the same time, and now they want to tell them how to handle the media… It wasn't like the Council to interfere so actively.

"They called us a couple hours ago, when you were asleep." he eventually said as they entered the cockpit together.

She was surprised. "What? What did they say?"

"I never said I picked up." He informed coldly, sitting in the pilot seat. Jane looked at him in a scolding fashion:

"Why? What if it is something urgent?"

"Then they will call again."

His ignorance was through the roof. At the same time she couldn't blame him, the last thing she wanted to do was deal with the Council. She got anxious just by thinking of them… then again… she had a bad feeling about this.

"Ilsa, destination is the Citadel. Let me know when we reach the relay."

[Of course.]

He was tapping away on the ship controls while she looked at him from behind, watching as his long talons moved over the console. He looked almost regal sitting there, just like he always did… suddenly the ocean came into her mind as her thoughts wandered off. He took her there… a warm smile curled on her face.

* * *

When he woke up, they only had a couple hours left of their Journey to the Citadel.

It was the same as yesterday, when he woke, Saren's first thought was Jane. She somehow remained in his mind, always bothering him whatever he did. When he went down to the lounge to get coffee, and she smiled at him, just like she did everyday, it got him thinking.

He thought he would never let anyone in his proximity ever, much less have a partner. When they met in the requisitions office he had no idea she would become his partner. He had no idea they would get this close.. this weird closeness that he loved and hated at the same time. It felt like they knew each other's thoughts, like there was some magnet between them, but something also kept them distant.

[Incoming call from the Citadel Council. Shall I patch them through?] Chimed Ilsa suddenly.

"It must be important.." Jane said to him, abandoning her coffee at the same time "We should see what they want."

"Patch them trough" nodded Saren coldly, his thoughts shifting right into a different gear. It seemed the Council desperately wanted to reach them, it wasn't like them to call multiple times.

"Is something wrong?" came from Jane who looked at him with squinting, suspectful eyes.

"We'll see..." was all he replied, then went to the comms room.

* * *

[It was about time you answered our calls..] Sparatus wasnˋt happy at all, it clearly shined through the holo that he didn't like being ignored. This time even Tevos looked a bit ruffled, it was clear that something had happened that upset the Council.

"We've been busy." Saren replied with a stern expression, his eyes darting from one Councilor to the other.

[We've heard] said Valern, his face now rather disappointed than bored or impatient as usual.

Saren looked at Jane from the corner of his eye, only to see her catching a glimpse of him too. He could tell they thought of the same thing. But before another silent second could pass, Sparatus unexpectedly blew up: [What crossed your mind when you thought going to Earth to get rid of a gang was a good idea?]

"I can't see anything wrong with it" Saren said immediately, his head held high.

[Saren, Earth is the human homeworld.] started Tevos [We have really fragile relations with humanity at the moment, and sending a spectre to one of their capitals, unannounced, can be a politically questionable move..]

"He did it to protect me." Jane said, and the Council members looked at each other in confusion.

[We don't care why you did it, Shepard.] Said Valern.

"Why is this suddenly a problem?" Saren asked quickly, mostly looking at Sparatus. The turian Councilor's face became bitter as they stared off.

[We employ spectres to protect galactic stability, not working against it.]

[Thatˋs right] added Valern [Shepard has a reputation already with the media, we don't need our best agent to get a reputation as well.]

"What the fuck?" came out of Jane who was downright offended by that.

[Forgive my comrade's bluntness] Tevos quickly said to save the situation from becoming uglier [However they are right. We never instructed either of you to hunt down a criminal group on Earth, and your private assault can cost us serious diplomatic advantages with humanity.]

"Thatˋs all you care about is it?" she retaliated, a grossed out expression on her face.

[You know that is not true.] replied Tevos.

"But it is, isn't it?" Saren suddenly said, stepping forward, the same deadpan look in his eyes "You swore to protect the galaxy, to unite it under one big alliance to ensure its survival. But you can't let your hands get dirty, right? The Terminus systems just planned a giant bio weapon assault on your entire territory and you still haven't taken any steps to solve this longrunning problem once and for all. And that is because you are afraid that an all out war with the Terminus systems will end up in losing your power..." his eyes were cold as ice, only his mandibles showing a small sign of anger as he spoke "That is why you give us every freedom when we do what _you_ want, but you get parental when we do our own thing, like now. We don't protect galactic stability, we guard your precious power..."

Valern looked at Tevos, a knowing look in his eyes. The asari was frozen by Saren's reaction and looked at Sparatus, whose expression was clearly tainted with anger. They weren't used to their favourite spectre speaking up against them like this.

Jane looked at Saren. Although he was right, she wasn't sure why he said this just now.

The room somehow seemed a bit darker suddenly.

[The consequences of your actions will be discussed on a hearing on the Citadel.] Sparatus informed coldly.

"Right." Saren said and severed the connection. And right after he did that, he came face to face with a very confused and angry Jane.

She was on fire: "What the hell was that for?"

"What do you mean?" he came back at her while leaving the comms room "Don't tell me you thought the Council was the source of all good?"

"No, but they're fed up with us as is, you didn't have to anger them even more!" she argued, following close behind him. "Maybe we should've never come here, this was stupid!"

"You know what was stupid?!" he said, his voice raised as he stormed through the lounge "Punching a reporter live!"

"Yeah... " she said with thick sarcasm in her voice "And right after it, escape mandatory leave and exterminate a gang on a homeworld off limits!"

The turian stopped in front of the bar, his eyes staring into Jane's as he turned around to face her: "Are you afraid of them or what?"

Her eyes fired up, and suddenly she didn't seem so small in the heat of the argument: "They're the Council! If we anger them too much they'll take away our spectre status! I hate them too, but we can lose everything, Saren! And how will we then finish our mission of cleansing this rotten fucking galaxy if we're not spectres anymore?"

"Don't you get it?" he roared, his talons curling around her arms, grabbing her as they were, and that's how he said in this deep, rumbling tone: "We do it on our own."

She froze in his hands.

Her eyes locked with his, and he could see the realization in them as she understood what he meant. Her mind was racing so fast, she never even considered this option up until now, and in her shock her hands instinctively grabbed onto his robe:

"You would go rogue?" she breathed.

She saw a spark in his eyes.

He just realized how he grabbed her, and how close they have suddenly gotten. Her small fingers were dug into his chest as she looked into his eyes, shocked. For a short moment he froze too, and feeling her soft skin under his claws, he only now came to the realization that she might not agree to this. And strangely, the thought that he might lose her because of this sent an alarm through his entire body and mind. But for some reason, something in him trusted that fire in her. That fire that drew him in, all those months ago.

She watched as his eyes widened, and the unspoken question hit her too.

She'd be completely abandoned by society. The first human spectre… fallen to the treachery of a rouge turian spectre. Fallen to the treachery… of boundless freedom. They'd be outkasts, monsters, vigilantes… and completely free and happy.

The look in her eyes changed, from shock to relief.

"Rouge..." she whispered, her hands absent-mindedly travelling up to his shoulders. He felt her body respond to the question in the air, and he drew her closer, his talons now on her back, grabbing her top.

She jumped into his arms and he hugged her, squeezing her small figure into his embrace, his heart almost stopping at the same time. She hugged his neck as hard as she could, suddenly not even knowing where she began and he ended.

As they pulled away, his mandible brushed to her cheeks and their eyes met, their foreheads touching. They never felt as close to each other as they did now, their noses so close, their eyes completely focused on each other.

There was no going back, there was no way in hell that this wasn't true.

She felt his lips brush against hers, and felt her insides were about to explode. The touch was light, and it shocked him as much as it did her. He pulled away just a bit, with a very strange look in his cold eyes. He surprised himself as well, as a hunger so deep and so primal started in him that felt like a storm.

Ilsa's voice cut their pause in half:

[I am receiving multiple red signals on emergency military channels from the Citadel. The station is under attack.]

For a moment they couldn't even react, but eventually Jane pulled away, her eyes locked with his. What were they doing?

It was as if her whole world changed slowly, and she was only now catching onto it.

Something in her mind told her she'll never forget this moment.


	21. Talk

**Pfffff**

 **My fav couple ever.**

* * *

Saren was storming through the ship, now fully dressed in armor, looking prepared and collected, but inside his mind there was a chaos he couldn't control.

He didn't even have to ask, it was like Jane understood just on her own. The hug they shared told him she was ready to go with him if necessary… go rogue with him... and that messed him up. He never in a million years thought that there was someone else out there who was just as twisted and crazy as he was, and that intrigue he felt when they met was confirmed now.

And that kiss… that tiny kiss they shared...

He cursed whoever was attacking the Citadel now of all times. The station could burn for all he cared. He exhaled hard, trying to center his mind once again, and stepped into the hangar. He went straight to his black shuttle and got in.

She was sitting in the passenger seat, looking right ahead, staring into nothing, fully armored. He started the engine. He's going to obliterate the attackers, and do it fast. He wanted to speak to Jane, and not save society's ass yet another time.

"Ilsa, open the hangar door."

As the door started to open downwards, making a way for them outside, the light of the station became visible, with the noise of war coming in. There was absolute chaos outside, unknown spaceships assaulting the Citadel fleet and the Destiny Ascension. Saren turned his head to her, noticing she was already looking at him.

"You ready?" he asked with the smoothest, most emotionless voice he could come up with. She tilted her head slowly, the strangest, confident look on her face.

"This is what we do best… How could I not be ready?" she smiled, her eyes blazing.

She was the most beautiful spectre in this fucking universe.

He grabbed the wheel and it sprung them out of the hangar, so they flew right out there, through the war, the shooting, trying to find their footing in this mayhem.

Her heart was beating fast, her stomach jumped up as the pressure hit her body with their takeoff. The lights of war enveloped them and suddenly they were in the middle of a burning space battle. Projectiles flew everywhere, laser beams ripped into metal, and with this the beating of her heart quickened rapidly as well.

Here they were again, in the middle of shit going down, and she was so excited.

"They don't seem to be attacking the Wards at all, apart from that point there" Saren said, motioning at a point in the distance, close to the ring of the Citadel, on one of the Wards.

"That's where the C-Sec HQ is" Jane realized, holding onto her seat as their shuttle fell in altitude, evading a projectile.

"They don't want to destroy the station, they want to take it over" Saren continued his assumption "It's safer if we fly close to the Ward."

Their craft soon started shaking as they entered the artificial atmosphere of the station, and they started cruising above the skyscrapers, their destination the ring of the Citadel.

"Nihlus!" Jane suddenly said, a holo of their spectre friend popping up from her omni-tool.

[Shepard!] he called, seemingly on the run as the feed was terribly shaking [I'm… arrgh!] he roared [The C-Sec HQ! You need to..]

Then the call ended.

"Fuck!" she cursed "Saren, take me to C-Sec!"

"We need to get to the Council, they are the target of this assault!" he replied "I won't fuck around at the HQ!"

"You know Nihlus is always in the Council's ass, he might have info on their whereabouts! Drop me off, then go to the Citadel Tower, it's likely they're there! I'll confirm the location with Nihlus and we'll meet up again accordingly!"

Instead of replying, he dragged the wheels to the side and the shuttle went into the sea of buildings, navigating through them to reach the HQ. It took only a couple minutes and they could see the overrun building of C-Sec in front of them.

"There!" she shouted, and the shuttle closed in on the entrance.

* * *

These freaking human soldiers were coming out from everywhere, flowing into the HQ, and Nihlus couldn't stop even half of them as they swarmed the building. He tried to hold them off for an hour now but he was at the end of his wits.

He finished another attacker, when suddenly a black, expensive shuttle showed up between the two neighbouring buildings, coming right to Nihlus. The vehicle came for him fast, giving him a heart attack almost, as in the last moment it slowed in the air, turning as it went.

Its door swooshed up, and from the passenger seat a red-haired woman flew out, falling right into the swarm of soldiers a couple meters away. A biotic explosion shook the ground and Nihlus jumped into the nearest cover not a second late, before a giant shockwave went through the entire square.

At the same time, the shuttle turned above the ground after the drop was complete, giving gas, the burners of it flaring up in flames, scorching the other side of the square in a crescent shape, blowing up the turrets and everything else in the way, sending half the square up into a brutal explosion and flames.

"Fucking hell!" Nihlus growled, barely holding on in his cover, a feeling of explosive anger building up in him. A second later the shuttle was gone and the square in front of the HQ was almost empty, the soldiers attacking now turning back to regroup on the other side of the highway.

"Nihlus!" came from behind his back. He turned and saw Jane with flaming locks come up to him, already covered in dust and ash. Her blue eyes flamed from excitement, a large smile on her face.

"I should have never set you two up together!" the turian roared at her, waving his rifle in the air "What the fuck is wrong with you, Saren almost burned me to death with that fucking engine!"

Oh her face turned dark in a second: "He burned the _other_ half of the square! We saved your ass!"

"And those biotics?" he continued, facepalming "You have no idea what self-control is!"

She suddenly smiled. It riled him up even more.

"You liked them? Quite flashy, right?" she asked, cheerful. "They're in good contrast to your boring shit."

"You're crazy.." he said as he realized she was teasing him.

"I might be" she started "But I recognized the mark on their equipment. They're Cerberus." Nihlus squinted with a suspicious look. He knew Cerberus, he heard of them from the Council. "They're here for the Council, we need to stop them. Do you know where they are?"

"They're in the Tower, I was on my way to them but couldn't get to the turbolift there were so many of them here."

"Well then, let's go." she said and turned, going to the HQ to reach the turbolift that lead to the Presidium, and through that, the Council chambers in the Tower. "Saren, the location of the Council is confirmed, it's the Tower!" she spoke to her comms.

[Got it.]

* * *

Saren parked his shuttle at the upper ring of the Presidium, and was already in the turbolift when he got the confirmation from Jane. As soon as the elevator door opened, he stormed through the chambers and up the stairs, finding the Council standing right in front of him, with devastated faces.

"Come, you need to escape, the station is under attack!" he urged them, motioning to the turbolift behind his back.

"Saren, get out of here!" Tevos screamed "There's an assassin here!"

He had no time to react, as a blow came from behind his back, slamming to his back almost as he turned around, just about blocking the strike from the assassin now in front of him: A human male with cybernetics in place of his eyes, coming for him with a short needle-like sword.

They exchanged a couple of blows and Saren almost managed to take his sword, when they turned, and the man started pushing him towards the elevator.

"Get in!" he ordered the Council, and the three leaders scooted into the elevator, scared for their life. He stepped backwards, trying to back into the lift himself, but the assassin pierced his sword in his direction at the same time, and in the lift door he had no space to block, so he turned to the side to evade. As soon as he did the assassin slammed him in the face with the back of his sword and Saren fell away from the elevator.

The man jumped in with the Council and without a word shut the doors. The turbolift started crashing down to the lower floors.

"Fuck!" Saren roared, getting up and wiping the blood off his face.

This whole fucking attack was to divert attention from assasinating the Council.

And now those three were alone with a pro assassin. He had no time. If he wouldn't be here right now, the Council would be minced meat by now. They didn't deserve what he will do for them.

He removed and threw away his gloves and attacked the elevator door. He forced his claws deep between the two wings of the door, and started pulling. A deep growl escaped him as he tore them open, just enough for him to fit through: the moment it was wide enough he jumped through, face first into the elevator shaft.

* * *

"Something's off" Nihlus said as he was looking at the elevator console "It's stuck on level 23. There's a malfunction in the system."

"That's Saren." Jane declared behind his back, her eyes stuck on the elevator door.

"How do you know?" Nihlus asked, turning to look at his omni tool.

A dark smile curled on her cheeks. "I just know."

[Jane! Can you hear me?] came from her comms suddenly.

"Saren! Yes!" she answered "What's happening, we can't go up!"

[There's an assassin here, I had to wreck the lift!] he shouted, his voice and breathing heavy, he was clearly in a middle of some exertion [Council fleeing on level 23, I'm trying to hold him off but the tower is swarming with these freaking soldiers! You need to hurry!]

"Got it!"

"Jane, my tool says there's another maintenance elevator that could take us closer to the Council." Nihlus suggested "We can use that to reach them."

She nodded.

He took a look at her. Her eyes icy blue, her fiery hair like a ring of fire around her shoulders. And the look on her face… it was lit with mischief. Up until they reached this point she's been like a damn rocket on fire, going through the Cerberus soldiers with a brutality and skill he never saw her use before. She caught him looking at her, and a giant smile spread across her face.

She was enjoying this.

Nihlus knew they were alike, but it was clear that the same demon was in her that lodged in Saren too. Her whole being screamed that this was easy for her.

She was a monster of war, just like Saren was.

What did he do when he made them pair up?

They took the maintenance elevator up, and found even more Cerberus soldiers, scattered across the level, trying to pursue the Council. She went through them with ease, destroying each and every soldier with her biotics. It seemed this level was quite a labyrinth, a collection of Council offices and therefore an endless maze of corridors.

They eventually found them.

The stupid Council managed to run into a dead end, and now they were stuck to the wall like scared prey, and only Saren holding back the assassin from butchering them. Jane stopped at the end of the corridor, watching the men fight, blow following blow as they went off on each other.

Saren caught sight of her.

She knew what she needed to do, but it wasn't all that easy. She turned back and stepped away from the corridor, so she could not be seen by the assassin, not even by mistake. Nihlus also ran to the wall, on the opposite side. They looked at each other.

"The corridor is too narrow" the turian said "This is problematic. Anything we send in will hurt Saren, and possibly the Council at the end of the line too."

She knew.

It was a really narrow way.

"If we shoot the assassin we can easily shoot Saren too, or even the Council behind him" he continued "Explosives are out of the question too."

"I know" she responded, frustrated. She was looking at the floor.

"Our only chance is to attack the assassin from behind, but we'd have no idea how he would react. If I were him, I'd turn whatever is coming to me to Saren's direction."

[Jane.] they heard Saren's voice from her comms, speaking during his battle with the assassin [Do it.]

"Do what?" Nihlus asked, confused.

"We only tried this move once… in training..." she breathed, visibly anxious.

"You trained for this?"

She raised an eyebrow: "We train for every situation. You don't?"

They couldn't possibly prepare for every situation, but it seems they worked terrifically together. He shouldn't be surprised. "But… How will..."

She took a deep breath. "It's a biotic charge. I charge right into that bastard, and crush him with the force of the charge. The only catch is that the assassin is very close to Saren. Even if I stop at the right time, I will crash into Saren too. So we trained… for him to catch me on impact."

The face Nihlus had on was one he never made before. It was absolute outrage, his mandibles opened wide, his eyes throwing sparks.

"This is crazy!" he snared "He can't just catch a force like that! It'll break every bone in his body! And in yours too, it's like crashing a rocket to a wall!"

Saren's voice came through again: [I can do it.]

Jane closed her eyes for a second.

She tried to listen to the logic in her mind, but deep down she already knew.

These past four months she saw him blowing up ships, assassinating a myriad of criminal bunkers and facilities, executing shots too risky to take, bring down buildings, ships, people. Every single time without fail, without the single smallest mistake. He was the one who taught her to release her powers, to let the fire inside her burn everything in her wake, instead of keeping it in. He'd go rogue to make sure their dream would come true.

 **[I can do it.]**

She stood and turned to the corridor, her eyes locked on the assassin and Saren fighting in the middle of it, trying to tear each other down. She heard Nihlus' voice trying to come through to her: "Jane, this is..."

"Shut up." was all she said.

She took a deep breath, and as she did, her arms raised and her knees bent.

The next moment, all Nihlus could see was a bluish gleam, and Jane shot through the corridor like a bullet from a gun. The air moved with her, knocking Nihlus back, and sending her to her target. She felt her fist crash into the assassin's skull from the back, all in slow motion in her mind, and she saw him crash down to the ground, revealing Saren behind him, who had his right hand up next to his face. She stopped immediately but the motion was still carrying her and her hand forward.

Reality slowed down, as her fist that crushed the assassin was now crushing into Saren's palm, whose talons locked around her hand. She felt the force of his body break the movement in hers, and her body started to lose the speed: her legs left the ground and fell forward, just like her head.

The next moment she felt them crush hard to the ground as they both lost control, and as Jane lost speed, Saren pushed forward, falling on her.

"What was that?" came from the background from Tevos as the Council watched what happened and suddenly saw a giant blue light crashing into Saren.

They saw Jane under Saren next to the assassin's corpse, and on the other end of the corridor, Nihlus, standing there in absolute shock, his mandibles fluttering in surprise.

They all heard a roar from the middle, and saw Saren move: "Arrhhh Spirits!" he crawled, unclenching Jane's hand, trying to lift his body "We're never doing this again!"

"Agreed..." Jane breathed under him, a painful expression on her face "You're like a brick wall..."

"Can you stand?" he asked, grabbing her.

"I think..." she replied, accepting his help as he moved her up, with his arm around her waist.

"You are completely mad, that was sick!" came Nihlus, landing a hand in taking Jane from him to let him breathe for a second. It was obvious that this stunt hurt him too, he could see his back stiff as concrete.

"Saren, if you broke my arm..." Jane threatened, sarcasm in her voice as she relied on Nihlus "I'll never forgive you."

He laughed, his voice ragged and deep. "Hush, I think _you_ broke _my_ arm..."

"I'll take her to the clinic, you should go too, Saren." Nihlus advised "I think the fleets are here at last, I'm reading some movement on military channels."

"Good." Sparatus appeared from the background "We cannot let the Citadel fall into Cerberus' hands."

The look he received from Saren was hellish. Valern stepped closer too: "Don't think this changes your situation, Saren. You'll answer for your disobedience."

"We just saved your asses!" Jane hissed.

"Which we appreciate..." came Tevos too.

"We better go" Nihlus said to diffuse the situation "You need to be checked on." he said to Jane as he turned, taking her away from the others. She turned, glancing at Saren, before they turned on the corridor.

* * *

The attack was over now, as soon as the Alliance fleet started rolling in, Cerberus had no chance of winning, and anyways, their main plan of assassinating the Council failed. Now, Jane sat on the bed in one of the clinic's rooms, getting ready to leave as she was just starting to put on the upper part of her underarmor on her top. She stopped, and put the clothing back down on the bed.

She finally had a second to digest whatever happened between her and Saren before they received the emergency signal.

And that stunt they just successfully completed… Her stomach was in nuts in a matter of a second. He was an absolute beast of a man. Her mind kept going back to that moment.. That moment when he kissed her, just so lightly on the lips, she felt like it fucked her mind up in a way it was never messed with before. And the strength, with how he caught her… he caught her in a way that stopped her, but did not hurt her. He could have easily broke her hand or shoulder, even her back if he wasn't careful enough.

But he was.

She had no idea what to think, all she knew was that her heart was beating so fast it scared her. There was a rush in her, a force that would not calm down no matter how hard she tried. This wasn't the same as when they almost kissed in that restaurant on their leave… it was a lot stronger, a lot deeper. It clawed at her from the inside. Maybe…

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in" she responded, coming back to reality.

But the rush in her veins was back in a matter of a second as she saw Saren enter the room.

He was out of his armor, just in a simple black robe, standing there, his eyes immediately fixed on her. But his body wasn't moving, like he got stuck in time.

The air in the room froze.

"Hey" he said in his deep voice, finally taking a step in.

She felt her doom coming towards her.

"Hey" she responded, trying to tame her voice so it wouldn't shake.

"How are you?" he asked, completely serious, not even trying to soothe the tension between them. He wasn't the small talking type.

"Fine" she breathed, looking at his eyes as he came closer. They were dark with a strange expression she never saw in them before. "My arm is fine. The impact was a bit of a shock to my bones, but no harm done."

"Good." he said, his voice getting even deeper, his steps even closer.

She stood up instinctively.

She saw his eyes go down a bit, inspecting her, his mandible moving the slightest bit as his glance became clouded, his eyes as dark as the night from anticipation.

She stood there in a tight black thigh which was her underarmor suit, and a single black top. He felt his insides shudder as he looked at her, that perfect figure… the fiery hair, her blue eyes, looking at him like she was turned to stone.

There was an electricity between them. It was so strong, it drew them closer and closer..

It might have been the same force that brought them together in the first place. He took another step, ending up exactly in front of her.

"We haven't finished our talk from before." he breathed, his voice so deep and rich with sensation, it almost vibrated.

"No, we didn't..." she replied, her voice so sweet and husky…

She saw his hand next to her face, an ungloved talon of his moving into her hair, twisting a lock of hair around it, then brushing it away. His eyes locked on her lips. She caught his clean scent, and her hands moved on their own. She slowly touched the zipper on his robe, her nails playing with it without moving it up or down. She could feel his chest rise and fall, his muscles move under the robe. Her fingers spread out, smoothing out the creases in his robe, slowly travelling up, to his mandible.

His hands now dig into her hair, moving through it, giving her a wave of shivers that made her close her eyes.

"You like it?" she asked, faintly, as she slowly opened her eyes. There was a question in his eyes, so she answered: "My hair."

No, he didn't like it, he adored it. It was like he was high on some heavy drug, he was speaking spirits know what now.

"It's beautiful.." he growled, their eyes meeting once again.

And whatever sanity they had left, they completely lost every last drop of it.

He leaned into her, his talons grabbed her hair at the back of her head, her arms curled around his neck and he kissed her with such a force that the bed was kicked back behind their backs, crashing to the wall.

He felt her lips on his, soft as a dream, and his mind went into a frenzy. She felt his tongue in her mouth and clawed into his neck in response. Every move they made started a reaction none of them could stop… and she was feeling his one hand hug her waist, the other gripping her hair. Lost in their kiss she raised a leg and brushed it to his side, and he couldn't help but move his hand to grab her thigh, starting a hunger in them that now could not be stopped.

He purred as he kissed her, his voice sending vibrations through her, taking away her breath. He was perfection solidified as he held her, making their minds go blank and drunk with lust. It felt like a different dimension, and they could not hear or see anymore. She was so lost in him, grabbing his jaw as he kissed her deep, demanding more and more, she squealed, her voice husky with love:

"Saren…."

The sound of his name in her voice shook him to his core, his mind was barely working anymore. He wanted her right here and now, on this bed, just as she was, sweet and beautiful. But reality hit him as he realized they were at a clinic, and if a doctor comes in right now, he might have to kill that poor bastard.

Jane was the first human spectre, who punched a reporter and now was directly responsible for saving the Council from doom… they didn't need another drama again with the media learning how they were found devouring each other in a public hospital… no matter how lustful that sounds… no… She was his, and no one else's.

He kissed her once again, then gently raised her back up into her original position next to the bed, and severed the connection between their lips. They opened their eyes and looked at each a large smile appeared on Jane's flushed face.

"I thought you hated humans..."

"Well..." he purred, trying to find a response that made sense.

"What a weird way to express hate..." she breathed, moving her index finger down the zipper on his robe.

A tiny, ragged laugh escaped him. She stepped aside, readjusting her top into its original, not-messed-up state. He watched her, a deep hunger in him, but he was a man of control, and he had to keep it together. So he turned around and stepped to the door. She watched him, with her heart about to explode out of her chest. As he opened the door, he looked back briefly with a predatory look in his eyes:

"Now we've finished that talk." And with that, he left.

She fell down into sitting on the bed, slamming the top part of her underarmor to the ground in an effort to get rid of all this energy inside her.

Damn, what a turian….

He was everything she ever wanted.


	22. Email

The Illusive Man lifted another cigarette, and lit it while the woman in the background stepped forward into the view of the dying sun that spread across the chamber. She stopped just in front of his chair, to give him her short report:

"The attack was repelled by the Systems Alliance fleet. Kai Leng was killed by two Council spectres."

He moved his cigarette over the ashtray.

"Well, I guess we can't have everything all at once." he replied, calmly.

"The two spectres are Jane Shepard and Saren Arterius. They came out of nowhere." Miranda added.

The Illusive Man's voice turned cold as ice:

"What a shame." he said, looking into the sun, tilting his head to the side, as a dark intention formed in his mind. "Too bad we'll have to remove them."

* * *

Saren slowly opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for long minutes, before even moving any of his limbs.

Just a night passed since their kiss, but it felt like an endless, eternal torture with no possible resolution. The memory of her velvet lips caused him a suffering he never really felt before. It felt like he tasted the sweetest heaven, only for it to be taken away. He didn't see her since that kiss, he had to fix that mess with the Council who demanded an immediate report, and once he came back to the Sovereign, she just wasn't there.

But it was for the best.

As he sat up, he wasn't even sure what the hell he was thinking when he kissed her. He loathed humans and he never thought of making contact with any of them, much less kissing one… but that was out the window now. He cursed himself, how could he be so stupid to kiss that woman. Even if she was beautiful, intelligent and strong, and probably the only possible person in the world who… he was a fool, and he made a giant mistake.

And now, one possible outcome of this whole mess was worse than the other. Now this kiss will be in the air until the end of their days, and there is no way to take it back, it will ruin everything. They are partners, both spectres, living on the same space ship, are on the same quest… and he would have to live with this, with her, with his own raging confusion about what the hell is wrong with him.

He wished none of this happened. Like he could just take it all back, and never cross that line again. They did so well, but now their relationship will be just petty, sad awkwardness until their lives run out.

He looked in the mirror in the bathroom, and hearing his own thoughts in his mind he was already disgusted by himself.

Why did he care so much about this?

So what if he fucked up their relationship? She was just a human anyway, he didn't care one bit. At least the Saren he thought he was, never did.

His mandibles tensed as he looked at his reflection, into his own blue eyes.

It was just a kiss. Nothing else.

He washed his face then left his cabin to prepare some coffee. On his way, he passed Jane's room on the deck, and slowly stopped for a second, looking at her door. After a moment of hesitation, he stepped to it, but did not do anything. He just stood there, as if contemplating knocking. He eventually looked up:

"Ilsa" he purred, his voice serious and low "Is Jane in her quarters?"

"No" Ilsa replied "She had not returned since she left with you yesterday."

It felt like he was slammed in the chest with something heavy. The fact that she did not return to the ship for the night meant that she was - at the very least - just as confused as him. But he wasn't sure what to think, he never cared about or put up with any women ever, he had no idea what she might be thinking, and all of these thoughts gave him a headache.

He decided he will relax and not overthink everything, it wasn't like him anyway. So he stepped away from the door and went to the bar to make some coffee. It worked, because the familiar routine of putting the kahve in the machine turned his mind off so well, that it immediately went into auto-pilot.

And in that, the sharp memory of her lips on his appeared, and flooded his mind. He kissed her so hard, they crashed the bed to the wall. She hugged his neck and wrapped her leg around him…

He caught himself, realizing that he was thinking about her again, and in his sudden rage almost broke the coffee machine. Then suddenly his omnitool beeped, and he saw an email arrive.

" _ **From: Laiel Sparatus**_

 _ **To: Jane Shepard; Saren Arterius**_

 _Title: Dinner meeting_

 _Shepard, Saren,_

 _In light of your recent actions and yesterday's events, the Council is inviting you to a dinner meeting in the Mirror, tonight at 8 pm sharp. Your next assignment and your evaluation will be discussed there._

 _ **Councilor Laiel Sparatus, On behalf of The Citadel Council**_ "

He deeply sighed at the sight of this email. The last thing he wanted to do was pose like an idiot in a fancy restaurant with the Council, in the aftermath of kissing Jane. He downed his coffee and decided to head for the spectre offices and beat all of this shit out of his mind.

* * *

Once Jane woke up, she sat up on her bed in her apartment, just staring out the window that overlooked the Wards. She felt like shit.

She shouldn't have kissed Saren, ever. He was not only the strongest, most dangerous spectre in the universe, but also her partner. She didn't join him to hook up with him, but to change this freaking galaxy together. But she had to realize that in that moment, she just couldn't stop herself.

She vividly remembered their kiss, how his talons felt in her hair, how close he held her, and it was poisoning her mind. Why would Saren ever… kiss her? He hated humans, loathed them. It was most probably just confusion on his part, and when they meet again, there will be this awkward undertone in the air, and she will not bear it for sure.

But when she thought of his face, his mandibles, his amazing silverish scales, those blue eyes… she felt like melting into thin air. She wanted to see him again, but it wasn't this easy. She thought maybe spending the night in her own apartment, instead of the Sovereign, would help make these thoughts go away, but reality was that this time she wasn't drunk. She couldn't just say that they were drunk and that was it, this was completely different.

It was a real, long, deep kiss they shared.

She still couldn't believe how amazing it was.

She needed to get rid of these thoughts. She had no idea what she would do about Saren, but it was clear that she was still under the influence of yesterday's events… She needed to clear her mind. So she got up, checked her emails and laughed at the meeting invitation, before getting some coffee and heading out to the spectre offices. Saren most probably slept on the Sovereign, and that surely meant he would have his morning training on the ship as well - it all made sense.

* * *

Saren let out a long exhale as he finished with his warm up and looked at his fists that were clenched together. A deep tension resided in him, and he was only hoping that a training session would be enough to make it go away at least until tonight. He turned around to start, thinking about what he should do first, but he froze midway.

Jane was standing in the door, visibly surprised by seeing him here. She was wearing only a black short and a black tank top, nothing else, obviously ready to train. Her face was also startled, and it was immediately apparent to him that she was just as taken aback by the recent events as he was.

"Saren.." she greeted, her voice airy, light from the surprise. "I didn't think you would be here..."

There was an unsaid weirdness in the air.

"I didn't think you would be here either..." he replied, stern, his mandible glued to the side of his face.

She almost felt his rage.

He was standing there just in black shorts, his chest rising and falling from his breaths as he clearly tried to hide his emotions. She had no idea what was going on. She wanted to train to get her mind off of yesterday, but instead, here he was, worked up already, and it started something in her too. Now they had to deal with this sooner than they liked.

But there was another way to look at this.

She was also anxious, but turians were much more primal than humans - resulting in their vast and brutal sparring habits. It seemed all Saren needed was a good sparring session right about now, and she picked up on that.

She picked up on that really well. Her mind suddenly switched into a completely different gear.

A good fight was something she knew she could give him, anytime. She knew she could help him with this… Help him release all that tension in his chest… see him move those muscles, those giant taloned fingers, feel his scent as they fight, look into those eyes… as stupid yesterday seemed to be, she realized as he stood there, that he was completely irresistable to her. It awoke a strange feeling in her.

"Well, I am here. I could use some..." she purred, her voice now lower, huskier "...workout right now."

The way she said that word tingled all of his turian senses.

Her eyes lit up differently, a tiny, impish spark appeared in them, accompanied by a small smile. It felt like she was proposing something: something they did many many times before. He eyed her up and down, and somehow all those thoughts about how he hated humans seemed unimportant… he looked at her hair, her stance, that fiery confidence that suddenly started radiating out of her at the thought of sparring. And it moved his mind too.

His eyes locked on hers and he felt excitement take the place of the anger and confusion he felt. He stepped closer to her as she did the same, slowly, searching each other's eyes for something, when both of them smiled, wide and evil, and the tension in the room was nowhere to be found now. They only saw each other and the promise of the fight, the game, just like they always did.

Everything happened so fast.

From an awkward moment they somehow found themselves going hard at each other, sparring. She came with multiple blows, hitting him in the guts, but he also blocked with his arms and soon returned the punishment. He scored a hit, shoving her back, but she returned with a jump, crashing down on him with a hard biotic blow that he took on one knee, immediately tripping her up afterwards. She kicked him away and jumped back up to hit him with her leg but he rolled away. He got up and slammed her to the lockers in the side of the training room, and dented the lockers with a hit she evaded. She slammed her elbow into his back, getting a loud grunt out of him, but he turned and caught her by the waist, and slammed her to the floor. She made painful sounds as the air escaped her but fought him off and got back up.

They were brutal, completely losing their minds within seconds. Just the fight remained.

Their energies were in synch, a confused, alien rage in both of them as they hated each other and themselves for not being able to control their emotions. They both felt their moves fluid, while they continued to beat each other, fighting their own minds in the process.

They were spectres, partners, with the same dreams and goals.

The same aggression, the same fire. That same brutal ambition that left everything in ruins behind them. The same thunderous will to win, to fight, to not care about this rotten fucking galaxy. They couldn't live without each other. They couldn't just fuck this up with some impulsive kissing.

But every second in their battle they spent catching glimpses of each other, enjoying the movements, that incredible synergy that flowed between them. He felt her cherry scent, got caught up in her beautiful fire engine red hair, and when he grabbed her waist to throw her, he felt her silky skin, and heard that beautiful evil laughter she sang when landing perfectly on her feet.

She looked at him, at his now fluttering mandibles, that cold fire in his eyes and those perfect plates on his wide, strong chest and shoulders. His growls were resounding tones of love and rage, his abs were rocks as she landed a hit, knocking him back.

And when eventually his strength won, and he pinned her down on the floor as they fell hard, he pushed her wrists down with his talons, rendering her unable to move. She was panting, looking into his eyes. Those eyes that searched her, clouded from the heat of the fight.

A low growl escaped his chest, and she started laughing.

He didn't laugh, just looked at her, returning to reality.

She was laying underneath him, her chest rapidly rising and falling from the exercise. The enormous happy smile she had on her face was proof of how she enjoyed their encounter. Her blue eyes looked at him as her laughter quieted down, and time froze. It was just them, and their bare emotions left, the thrill of danger.

The colour of her hair as it fell on the ground, the slow move of his mandible as he slowly opened his mouth in amazement of how unbelievably beautiful she was. Her heartbeat sped up as she realized he didn't let go of her hand, and remained on top of her. She got lost in his lips and his straight nose, in the deep silver of his eyes.

She never felt this excited.

Because here he was, just on the brink of taking control over her, the power in his eyes making her drunk with lust for him. She couldn't quiet down the thought, and he couldn't escape this indestructible desire in him. He squeezed her wrists, and in his frenzy, he went in for the kill.

It happened faster than a second that he moved, she opened her mouth, and they clashed in a hard, powerful kiss. She moaned and he growled, loud, as he devoured her, almost knocking the air out of both of them. His hands let her wrists go, and her fingers immediately moved to the side of his face to pull him in further, hungry for more. His one hand supported himself, while the other grabbed her waist, pulling her top up a bit to access her skin.

She sighed, catching her breath, when he broke their kiss and buried his face into her neck. A shiver coursed through her, and she couldn't keep quiet, she almost cried out for him. He smiled into her neck just behind her ears, before retaking control over her mouth, his mind completely void of any reason now. Her legs got loose and she raised them to lock them around his hips, resulting in a deep, approving rumble of his voice and he pushed his hips to her, eliminating the distance between them.

Her body was on fire. His left hand wrapped around her neck softly as he kissed her, more and more, while his right talons pushed under her top to reach her chest, touching the soft skin just under her breasts. She ran her nails down his chest, feeling his muscles down along his abdomen and below. He was so strong, holding her firmly as their kisses deepend even further and they couldn't follow what reality was anymore.

They craved each other so much, their bodies cried for the passion, for the fire that was now immoveable in them. Hands and legs twisted together as they made out, there, on the floor.

But once again, reality hit Jane who realized they were in a training room, just in front of a completely see-through window, with the potential that another spectre could walk in on them at any second.

"Wait" she moaned, putting her hand on his mouth, pushing herself up from the ground. "Bad idea."

The look in his eyes was incredible.

That cold blue was almost black now with desire, a darkness looming in it as he was still entirely intoxicated by her being. She wanted nothing but to fall back into this sweet madness in those eyes.

"Smart girl." was all he said in a ragged voice, making her sigh deeply with amazement.

He hesitated for a moment, but then stood up, helping her up too. She half expected him to just pick her up and carry her wherever they can continue this, but reality was that as soon as he regained his sanity, Saren already had a plan. He moved to the door of the training room, and before leaving, he looked back:

"You read Sparatus' email, right?" he asked, his voice now back to normal, professionally masking the inner animal he had to push down just seconds ago.

"The Mirror, tonight at 8pm." she replied, pulling her top back down to her waist.

"It is one of the fanciest places in the entire station." he purred with a dark smile, clearly implying something.

She smirked. "Don't worry. I won't disappoint." She said, already thinking of which one of her dresses could bring about a complete destruction of Saren's cold willpower at the dinner table.


End file.
